Peacekeeper
by Eberhardt
Summary: Naruto was just enjoying a game of poker. Then, he got pulled into another world, by a Goat and Wizard. As tensions rise in the background between Dark Guilds and the Magic Council of Fiore, only one thing is sure. Naruto will be at the center of it all, even though he just wants to find a way home.
1. A Gamble

**This story was written because the idea wouldn't leave me alone. To be entirely honest, parts of it aren't up to par, but for some reason, I just didn't feel like writing anything else. So, I've mostly decided to use this as an experiment in planning several chapters out entirely in advance. It seems to have worked, since I've written about 32k words for it 7 days. **

**I'm unsure how long my motivation for this fic will last. I might not get any more chapters out after the first three, which are already written, for some time, if I just plain don't feel like writing. With that in mind, without further ado, here's the story.**

**After a short disclaimer, anyway.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mahsima. I do not claim in any way shape or form that I have any ownership over the aforementioned series.**

* * *

Chapter 1

_January 12, X782_

The snow fell lightly to the ground, as he and his Guild Master traversed the path through the forest. It was dark, and the trees were tall, but the path was still visible. They were lucky it had only just begun to snow. Though it was cold and wet, he was not bothered by such small things, even with his lack of suitable clothing. Not since he had gained this body anyway.

Mentally, he grimaced, as he looked at his arms. They covered fur almost as white as the snow that was currently falling. He cursed his arrogance and stupidity, he should've known that once he inhabited it, he would not be able to leave it. Now, his true body was lost to him and he was human no more. Still, at least this boy came with some benefits.

Behind his sunglasses, his eyes idly flicked towards his Master, wondering how he was dealing with the weather. Though the man was dressed much more warmly than himself, under all of that armor, he should still be feeling the cold. Yet not a hint of discomfort was shown.

_Of course, knowing Master Hades, he's probably using a bit of fire magic to warm himself._

His Master was a very powerful Mage, who had probably forgotten more about magic than 10 mages put together ever even learned of. In fact, he was the one who had taught the furred man the magic that had gotten him this body in the first place. Still, even knowing this, he couldn't keep some the doubt he had at what they were about to do to himself.

"Master Hades, are you sure this will work? I know we've been working on this project for months, but still…"

The other mans long beard twitched as he spoke, his one eye not covered by an eye patch swerving to him. "Zoldeo, are you so unsure of the work we've put into this? Quite a bit of the work done on this ritual was done by yourself, afterall. I merely looked it over and nudged you in the right directions. And, if it does work, there is no end to the possibilities it has.

If you are still unsure, I will assure you that, at the very least, neither of us will die."

That was something, he guessed. Giving out a grunt confirming he had heard the man, Zoldeo's thoughts turned towards the ritual. It was something he had thought of while reading in the vast library held within their Guild's Airship. He had come across mentions of a place called Edolas, which turned out to be a parallel universe to their own. It had gotten him curious as to whether or not there may be any warriors of that dimension he could use for his magic, Human Subordination. However, Further reading revealed, that there were no real mages in that universe, the residents having to rely on magic items. There could still be some fierce warriors there, he supposed, but it was not worth the effort. Besides, his mind had gone in a different direction, towards an idea.

He had brought this idea to Master Hades, who would most likely have the best knowledge on whether or not it was possible and how to achieve it. Apparently, his idea had gotten his Master's interest and had quickly gone about helping in bringing it about. After months of work, they had finally done enough for their first attempt.

A Ritual to summon a warrior from a different universe, which would then be put under his Human Subordination Magic. That was their goal, for the night.

Which is what led him to now, he and Master Hades on their way to one of the safehouses for their guild had. They had been set up in the unlikely case they ever had to hide. Not that they ever expected to use them, but their Guild Master was thorough. Since they were all out of the way, they had decided to use one, just in case the ritual went wrong. It would not to, to destroy their main headquarters, which was currently hovering about, up in the clouds.

_Speaking of our destination…_

Indeed, it seemed they were finally coming upon the chosen site for the ritual. He could see the safehouse now. It wasn't much, nothing but large cabin set at the base of the mountain, but it would do. There was supposed to be a secret basement, much larger than the actual cabin itself, built underneath. _That_ would be the place for the ritual.

Mentally, Zoldeo grinned in anticipation of getting a new servant.

* * *

_Elemental Countries, Konoha_

Can't say I was doing anything particularly noteworthy, when it happened. In fact, all I was doing was playing poker. Sure, maybe someone else would find the fact that there were three other me's also playing peculiar, but for me, this wasn't all that out of the norm. Actually, this was my weekly poker night.

Though I was never able to figure out who won these games...except for the times when my buddy Kurama took over one of my clones and even then, there was some confusion.

Anyway, there I was, playing poker in my apartment with my clones. The apartment was clean, for once, and the window was open, letting in the summer breeze and the smell of the market down below. It also let me see the mountain, with five big, imposing heads carved into it. I could also see the setting sun.

Man, that real-estate agent _was_ right, it was nice view. Made me glad I'd bought this place when the village was rebuilt after that incident with Pein a couple years ago.

Now, one may ask, why was I playing poker with myself? Well, the answer to that question was a simple one. I wasn't allowed at the unofficially-official Jonin poker game held every Saturday, after my first three games. Apparently, if you win too much at poker your friends start to hate you. Especially after you clean them out of all their money three weeks in a row.

Back to matters at hand, I looked at my...well, hand. Hrmm, a pair of Red 6's, a 7 of Clubs, a 2 of Clubs and an Ace of Spades. I got rid of the 2 and the Ace and got an 8 of Spades and a 6 of Clubs in return.

Looking up from my hand, I squinted at my clones, trying to discern whatever I could. The one directly in front of me was squinting too, while the one to my left was staring at me coolly. With only one left, I looked at the clone to my right. Right away, I could tell he was shifty, his eyes glancing one way and then another. It seemed he noticed me as he turned his gaze towards me as I squinted at him harder. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the other clones take notice and start staring at him as well.

The shifty-eyed clone was sweating now, but he didn't let it deter him as he laid down his bet. My other clones were not be outdone, as they both raised until it was my turn. Of course, I wasn't gonna let my own clones show me up, so I raised as well. Finally, it was time to show our hands.

By some unspoken signal, we all laid down our cards on the small table we were sitting at. Immediately, we all crouched over to see who had won. Squinty Clone had a pair of 3's, Shifty had three 4's and the last clone had...a bunch of Old Maid cards?! I didn't even own Old Maid cards!

Still, it dawned on me that I was the winner and I reacted as befitting a Jonin of Konoha and a Hero of the Fourth Shinobi World War. By Jumping up and gloating.

"Hah! I win suckers! None of you can match my magnificent glory!" This was said while I was pointing at them with a gloating smirk. I preened under their glares and angry mutterings as I strutted around the room.

Naturally, it was at this moment that I started to feel it. It started as a kind of tingling in between my shoulderblades, but slowly spread and intensified. Soon, it was over my whole back, and instead of tingling it was more of an itch and it was only getting worse. I'd started rubbing at the itch, but it wasn't helping.

From where I was standing, I saw my clones staring at me, when one of them spoke up, "Boss, what's going on? You look like there's something wrong."

The itch had turned into more of a burn now and it was making me sweat a bit. I'd stopped trying to itch it, because it just wasn't working, It had also started to spread to my chest and neck. Looking down, I was surprised. Over my green Jonin vest, there were a bunch glowing purple lines, inching across my body. For a second, I thought it was some kind of fuuinjutsu, but quickly realized there were none of the signs one would see in a Seal. On the other side of room, my clones had realized there was something seriously wrong and had gotten up to come over.

I tried to move myself, but found that I couldn't. Muscles tense and strained, I tried my all to break out of whatever this was. My teeth clenched, both in effort and pain as the burning crept to an all time high. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was being roasted by one of Sasuke's fireballs. Still, if I couldn't break out of this on my own, maybe a bit of help was required. With that in mind, I turned my attention inward, to contact the one friend who was always with me.

_Kurama! Do you have any idea what the fuck this is? And do you think I could get some help here!_

From the recesses of my mind, I heard a low growl and felt a rush of pleasant coolness spread through my body, a sharp contrast with the heat, as lessened the burning and strengthening my body. I could even feel the familiar flame-like chakra wrap around me. But the glowing lines were still there. My attention was still focused within, however, even as my efforts doubled, waiting for the dark, growling voice of Kurama.

**I do not know what this is. It is not something I have encountered before. However...from what I can tell, it has the sense of something akin Time and Space Technique. I'd be careful, brat.**

Time and Space? Damnit, I knew I should've looked into those more. Everyone knows they were a pain in the ass to deal with when fighting Obito. Of course, I was lucky Kurama was sensitive to chakra and energy in general, or I wouldn't even know as much about what these lines were as I did. Still, it just made it that much more prudent to break out of this as quickly as I could

I let out a sound akin to a growl, from where I had managed to crouch near the floor, the sound deeper than normal thanks to Kurama's chakra. My clones had reached me at this point as well, and all three were straining to help me move, but it was like moving through molasses. Well, if this was something like Hiraishin or Kamui, I'd probably find myself somewhere unpleasant if I couldn't get out of this, so at this point, the best I could do was prepare.

Turning my head, I barked out an order to one of my clones. "You! Go and get my kunai pouch and sealing kit!"

The clone quickly scurried off to fulfill its order and quickly returned with the requested items. I had to have the clone strap them to my leg, because I couldn't do it myself. At least now I had something defend myself with, wherever I ended up. Looking at one of the other clones, I told it to go write down what was happening and then bring it to the first person he recognized out in the village. There was no telling how long this thing had until it was complete.

Though from the look of the lines, it seemed like it may be soon. They had finally reached my hands, legs and face and the burning was getting through even Kurama's chakra. And did I also mention they were starting to spark? Yep, the lines were letting out small sparks of what looked like purple lightning. Felt like lightning too, from the numbing, current like sensation I was feeling. Combined with the burning, it was _highly _unpleasant.

Vaguely, I noticed that a circular ring had formed over the center of my chest and was filling in quickly. Once the ring had become a full circle, the dark, glowing purple color seemed to darken and...sink. That was the only way to describe it, it sunk into my chest and changed into a pure black, instead of purple. The sinking continued and it was like looking down a dark hole, or into a pitch black cave that just kept going and going going. I felt like I could probably stick my whole arm in there and not even come close to reaching the end.

This sinking sensation went on for what felt like forever, but what was probably only a few seconds. Hell, this whole ordeal had probably only taken a minute or two at most. Finally, however, the feeling...stopped. Like it had reached it's destination, as if it had simply been digging a hole through a wall and had gotten to the other side, it _stopped._

And then, from the center of what I now knew to be a _hole,_ not a circle, my chest started to disappear. As in, I could see through myself, as if I wasn't even there. And it was _spreading._ It also hurt like a _bitch._ Despite myself, I couldn't help but let out a sharp grunt of pain, as my body slowly faded away.

First my chest, then my shoulders and thighs and then my feet, arms and neck. And finally, it reached my face.

Dimly, I heard the front door of my apartment slam open as feet ran into my living room. Glancing in that direction, the last sight I saw before my eyes started to fade away was the horrified faces of my old teammates, all of them carrying bowls of ramen in their arms. For some reason, I couldn't help the feeling this would be the last time I saw them. Well, he supposed he should say something suitably awesome, just in case.

With half of my face now faded away, I opened what was left of my mouth in a large grin and said "Save me some ramen for when I get back, will ya?"

And then all I saw was darkness. For one, inexplicable, agonizing moment that felt like an infinity that it just may have been, there was nothing but darkness...and pain. It was as if every part of my body was being ripped in every possible direction simultaneously. In that moment, I thought I'd just dissolve into a vaguely Naruto-shaped cloud of particles and then disperse out into the void. The pain was immense. Worse than anything I'd ever felt before -and I'd felt a lot of pain, in my career as a Shinobi- and probably worse than any pain I'd feel in the future. If I even had a future.

Then, finally, it stopped and it felt like my body 'snapped!' back into place, like a rubber band contracting back from being stretched. Even though there was some leftover fog of disorientation from the pain, I could still notice a curious falling feeling. Compared to to the torture of before, the difference was startlingly peaceful.

It also gave me a moment to talk to Kurama.

_Damnit Kurama, do you have any idea what this is? This doesn't feel like any Space/Time technique I've ever been hit with! Not even the Kamui felt like this!_

The Kyuubi's response was quick, and I heard the growling voice once more.

**As I said before, it still has the sense of Space and Time….but it is much more powerful than I imagined. Whatever this is, it is a technique like no other we have seen. I can only imagine where we might end up.**

**Naruto! I'll warn you now, it is quite likely we won't end up on a plane of existence we are familiar with. You must be ready anything.**

I couldn't help letting out a mental grunt of annoyance and frustration. Though I wasn't normally all that focused or tended to pay any mind to a lot of things, over the past few years I had calmed down a lot from compared to when I was younger. I wasn't an idiot anymore, especially after I had started to learn the Art of Sealing. It didn't escape me as to what Kurama was alluding to.

Dimensional Travel. Alternate Universes. Divergent Timelines. Call it what you want, but the premise was the same. Of course, despite being what almost all Space/Time techniques strived to be, it was supposed to be impossible. Most Space/Time techniques created a pocket dimension or otherwise worked within our own universe. As far as I knew, no one had been able to breach the wall to a whole new dimension.

Which said a lot about the guy on the other side of this technique.

There was nothing I could do about it right now, however, so I simply did my best to relax and prepare myself.

* * *

_Earthland_

The large, intricate magical circle on the floor was glowing a bright dark-purple color and sparking wildly. It was also giving off a bit of a gust that made Zoldeo -or Caprico as he preferred in this body- glad for his sunglasses. As always, Master Hades didn't seem at all ruffled from the chaos their ritual had brought about to their surroundings.

Caprico's eyes took in the five knocked over braziers, the ashes spilled onto the floor. There were deep gouges in the beige walls of the room, some of them letting out tufts of wispish smoke. To his displeasure, a gust of wind sent some smoke and ashes towards his face. Though he didn't need to protect his eyes, the smoke made his nose itch unpleasantly and it almost made him want to sneeze.

Still, at least the ritual seemed to have been a success. There had been a bit of resistance, at first, but they had kept going and it had paid off. Whoever they had snatched should be on their way now. Though he was aware of the fact that there was very little chance that who they summoned was a warrior of skill, he couldn't help but hope to add a powerful new minion to his magic. This was simply a test run, though, to see if the concept would even work. It was not yet refined enough to be able narrow down the kind of people summoned.

_There's always next time, I suppose…_

The furred man was taken from his musing as the circle glowed even more brightly, a sign that it was almost complete. He couldn't keep himself from leaning forward slightly in anticipation. Who would arrive from their summons? A Man? A Woman? His mind was full of possibilities.

From where the circle lay on the ground, the glow reached a peak and...rose. It started to solidify, taking on a more plasma like quality and the sparks of purple electricity rose with it. Slowly, the light started to take the shape of an average sized man. As the seconds ticked by, the mass of lightly slowly gained more and more definition, the face becoming more distinct and muscle becoming noticeable.

Finally, the glowing started to die down, along with the wind and crackles of electricity. In its place, stood a man, of average height and who seemed to have a lean, muscular build. If he had to guess, he'd say the man focused on keeping his body agile and flexible, but that did not mean he lacked strength. And if that wasn't clue enough that this man was used to fighting, then the pouches full of knives haphazardly strapped to his black pant legs on either side, were. As far as clothing went, there was the aforementioned black pants and pouches, with bandages wrapped around the shins. He was wearing a black shirt with an orange spiral on the front, that was partially covered by an open green flak jacket.

His blonde hair was shaggy and spiked, some of it falling down over the headband that had a metal plate with a symbol engraved upon it. From what he could tell, some the hair may have been tied in a small tal in the back. On his face were six curious whisker-like marks. Blue eyes were flicking around the room, taking in the surrounding, but never keeping Caprico and Master Hades out of his line of sight.

This man was definitely a warrior. Caprico couldn't help the grin that formed on his face, as he raised his hand in preparation to use his magic. As he gathered the energy needed to subordinate this man, he came across a surprise. His arm wavered for second as he registered it.

Whoever this person they summoned was, his existence registered as both Human and Not at the same time.

His grin widened, as he raised his arm once more. He had been getting tired of this body anyway.

* * *

_With Naruto_

Ow! Fuck that hurts! Going from pure darkness to a bright ass light was killer on the eyes. I had to blink some spots out of my vision, in order to see. Still, even though I was temporarily blind, I was not deprived of all my senses. There were two other people here with me, wherever here was. At least I wasn't being immediately attacked.

That didn't mean I was going to let my guard down, of course, as I mentally nudged Kurama. The smallest flicker of his chakra had just barely hit my coils, before my eyes were quickly clearing up. With that, I could finally get a good look at where I had ended up and who had caused it.

I'm a tad sad that it took me a moment to fully realize exactly what I was seeing. I mean, the room was normal enough, if you ignored the weird, intricate circle on the floor (Which I mentally noted bore a kind of resemblance to the lines that had appeared on my body) and the gouges all over the place. Even the knocked over braziers added a bit of definition to the place. It really gave a kind of crazed, cultish ritual vibe to the place.

No, the thing that took me a moment to comprehend were the people. The one to my right wasn't too weird, considering the kind of people I've met before. Not that there was much worse than green spandex. He was tall and elderly and built like a brickhouse from what I could discern. In that regard, he kind of reminded me of Jiraiya, though he was obviously older than that old perverted hermit had been. There was also an eyepatch and a horned helmet and I could see the man's long beard. And I mean _long._ I don't think I've ever met a person with a beard that long. Most of his form was covered in a dark cape and and a mantle, but I could see gauntlets covering his crossed arms, as well as a dark shirt. His pants were a shade of white with dark red flames at the bottom. Lastly, he was wearing boots.

The other one...The other one was a goat. There was no other way to say it. I couldn't help but stare at him a bit, from the corners of my eyes, as I took in every detail I could of the surroundings. Goat-man was wearing something that looked like a modified tux for a male-stripper. That was probably the best way to describe it. It reminded me of Sai, in a bad way.

He got points for the cool shades, though.

There was a moment of tension, neither side doing anything but observing the other. And then the Goat-man raised an arm. The action made me tense in preparation, ready for a fight. However, for a second, the Goat paused as if something had surprised him, before a grin formed upon his face and the arm raised once more.

Now, I was ready for a lot of things, but I did not expect a burst of some weird purple energy that was most definitely _not _chakra to blast from Goat-man's hands and envelop me.

This was where things got weird. There was a curious, yet familiar sensation, like someone pouring cold water directly on my brain. It was very, very similar to Yamanaka mind-techniques. Specifically, their Shintenshin.

That was both good and bad. On the bad side, that meant this guy was probably an interrogator, much like many of the Yamanaka of Konoha were. On the good side, I had experience with Yamanaka techniques. Over the years, me and Kurama had gotten quite good at keeping others out of our heads.

Mentally, I grimaced and got ready for a sinking sensation of a different kind. There was always a difference when it came to techniques like this, a result of different people having different ways of doing things. Some were like sledgehammers, slamming into the mind with no subtlety or style. Others were more like a poison, slithering it's way through the mind without notice until it was too late. Still, there was always a single thing they had in common and that was how they ended. As a person adept at giving things names, I had personally termed it as "The Sink." Like the name implies, it was sensation akin to sinking, but not as if you were in water. No, it was more like how one would imagine water going down a drain, slowly spiralling downwards.

That's what I was prepared for, anyway. It seemed this place was full of surprises, as instead of getting flash of pain, or an unpleasant slithering sensation the surroundings around me disappeared. The gouged walls were replaced by a foggy expanse that had zero visibility beyond a few feet. As far as I could tell, the fog went on forever.

Despite myself, I took a step back at the change. My first thought was that it was an illusion and I quickly attempted to dispel it. Unfortunately, that did not work, whether because it was formed from a different type of energy or if it was simply not an illusion, I didn't know. (Though if it wasn't an illusion, I had no idea what it was) I could hear an echoing voice now, though the words weren't anything I recognized. Sounded like the voice was gloating though. The prick.

"Che. Damnit, what the hell is this?"

The surroundings were a bit different now, as the voice continued talking. There were blurred outlines of what looked like ruins, with toppled over pillars here and there, some of them still standing. As I looked around, tense and waiting, the shadows cast by the pillars all flickered and then moved until they were all pointing towards me. It would've reminded me Shikamaru's techniques, if not for the fact _they were rising off of the ground!_

Slightly taken aback once more, the shadows were able to fully form in a circle around me, each in the outline of the Goat-man. Or they were, until the shadows changed once more, into the outline of a more normal looking man.

And then they attacked. It wasn't a physical attack, they didn't come charging at me to fight or anything. No, they attacked my _will, _symbolized by the Shadow-figures own even darker shadows slowly getting closer to me_. _And I finally understood.

Unlike the Yamanaka who utilized and attacked the mind -Conscious and Subconscious- by projecting their own towards their target via creating a link with Yin-chakra, this crazy fucker _had just thrown his whole damn soul at me. _Yamanaka techniques were not, precisely, a battle of wills. Not always, at least. It was more like them attacking a castle, finding a way inside to occupy it. In comparison, this was like throwing a castle at his own castle, but not, at the same time. Because this guy was no longer a "Castle," but a "Cage." If a regular person had been able or willing to do what he just did, it would a straight up fight of wills, with the winner taking the body and the loser getting their ejected soul torn to shreds. But because this guy was a cage, instead of going head to head, my will was being subverted and restrained.

That didn't mean I didn't give the guy a fight. If there was one thing I'd never lack in, it was willpower. Though I'd found I couldn't move from my place, I could still push the shadows back by imagining it. Obviously, It was much harder than it sounded. This guy was no pushover, either. I could tell the guy was surprised, but after what sounded like an echoing angry curse, his own efforts doubled.

The fight went on for a while, both of us straining our wills. I hated to say it, but I was losing. In addition to the nature of this guy's attacks, I had to spread myself out against several different directions. The Shadows were most likely some kind focus for his will, enhancing it. And they surrounded me on all sides. Not to mention, sometimes I'd have to focus on one specific shadow as the strength behind it's push increased, allowing my attention to waver and letting one or more of the others close in.

By the time I was completely covered by the shadows, and I felt myself slipping while… _something_ slithered in and tried to restrain me, I was angry. At this guy and at myself, for not acting quicker. I should've attacked this guy and the other one the first chance I got, and asked questions later. Once this was over, that was going to be rectified. But before that, I had to beat this guy back.

_Heh, if this guy wants to cage us so bad, maybe he should meet the occupants first! _The thought made me grin, as I let go of the battle. I'd been stupid, fighting this on my own, when I could've called in backup, but I hadn't expected the guy to have such a strong will, despite my own being slowly sapped. That made me kick myself, because hadn't I already thought that this place was becoming more and more surprising by the second? And it made sense this guy would have a strong will, if his techniques relied on it so heavily.

As I seemed to give up, more and more shadows appeared and swarmed me, but I didn't let it bother me as I took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and concentrated even as I felt the glee of the other guy at 'winning.' When I opened my eyes, I was in a familiar place.

The water that had always been here was clearer than it had been just a couple years ago, not as murky. That wasn't what I was here to see, however, so I turned around, towards utterly the massive chamber behind me. Gates that had once been strong, unyielding metal were now a soothing, carved, red wood. Oh, and they were open.

I gave the giant beast in front of me a glare, as I huffed in annoyance. "You could have helped at any time, you know!'

The damned furry bastard had the audacity to chuckle. Stupid smug fox. Looking at Kurama, I could tell he was taking a bit of pleasure in my predicament. He had calmed down significantly in the last few years as well, but my friend still had to tendency to be extremely frustrating. I'm fairly sure it was how he entertained himself.

Currently, he was lying down on his stomach, one of his large floppy ears crooked forward and the other out to the side. His large red eyes held a glimmer of humor. Again, I assumed the humor was at my expense. Kurama's large chasm of a mouth, filled with teeth the size of stalactites, were easily visible as he responded to my accusation, "**It wasn't as if you were ever in any real danger. This man's technique may be dangerous to any one person, but even if he gained full control, it would not be out of our reach to eject him at any time, if we worked together."**

The fox used one of his hind legs to scratch behind his ear, his head tilted to the side. When he was done, he looked at me once more.

"**Besides, I thought it was funny."**

My glare intensified, as I pouted a little. Sure, now that he mentioned it, that was about right, but it was still mean. I even told him so.

"**Deal with it, brat."**

I let out a sigh and relaxed my stance, giving Kurama a cool look. The worry I hadn't realized I'd been feeling had slipped away with the knowledge the Goat-man wasn't a threat. It didn't mean I wasn't still pissed at the attempted hostile takeover of my body, though. It was _mine_ after all.

And occasionally Kurama's, but that was besides the point.

"Kurama. Let's make this guy regret it."

There was a rumbling chuckle from the massive fox, the light hearted humor that had been there before now replaced with something darker. "**I knew there was a reason I put up with you."**

Vengeance was never really my thing. I wasn't usually the kind of guy to take pleasure in the suffering of others, at least, not serious suffering. But the years after the fight with Obito and Madara had been hard and maybe I'd grown just a tad bit more jaded. Despite the fact that the five major Shinobi Villages had kept the alliance going, there had still been voices of dissension. They were the minority in their respective villages, but they had still been pockets of unrest. Several groups had splintered from their own villages and had tried to rekindle the war that had just ended.

Each and every group had been labeled as terrorists, much like the Akatsuki had been. The last two years had been almost entirely devoted to hunting them down. Even now, however, there were still some groups that were active and eluded the grasp of the Shinobi Alliance. Which said something to their ability, because not only were they fighting off their own villages, as well as the others, but also the other terrorist groups.

All of them had caused some kind chaos and pain, in some way. Some more than others. I'd seen the aftermath of many of the attempts of their fruitless efforts to spark a war. It had been why I'd personally helped take down seven of the different groups, each of various sizes and threat.

So if I was just a tad bit more cruel, just a tad bit more vicious, it was because maybe I had bought in to Pein's methods, if just a little. I'd never go as far as he had, but sometimes people just didn't learn.

Madara certainly hadn't.

I didn't particularly know this guy, or the things he'd done. But I could make some assumptions. The way those shadows had changed to a more human form suggested that the Goat-man body I had first seen him in wasn't his original. Which means this guy had used the technique to take it over, like he was attempting to do to me. There was no telling how many people this guy had possessed.

Not right now, at least.

It was time for my counter-attack, however, so I put that aside for the time being. I closed my eyes once more, but this time, I _pulled._ When I opened my eyes this time, I was in a completely black space. Despite the lack of light, my form was perfectly visible. And so was the guy I had yanked from his gloating.

He didn't look like much. Scrawny build, average face, and long puffy black hair, held up by a red and white head-band in something that slightly resembled a hair-style from Kumo I'd seen. A long purple tunic covered his chest and most of his legs, but under it he wore a white shirt and purple pants. Perhaps the most interesting feature was was the stitches along his face that reminded me unpleasantly of Kakuzu.

"So, this what you really look like huh? Heh, I can see why you'd take even a goat over this."

The man barely seemed to have heard him, looking around frantically with surprise and a hint of fear. That was probably gonna get worse in a second.

"I doubt you even know what I'm saying, but you really shouldn't have tried to take over my body. It's mine, you see and I already have to share with an annoying ass fox. And you know what they say, two's company, but three's a crowd."

My face was utterly impassive as the man finally decided to take notice of me, but by then it was too late. I watched as the terror entered his eyes, as what I knew to be giant, malevolent, red eyes opened behind me. The guy's terror grew even more when a mouth full of large, sharp, white teeth appeared in a hungry grin.

Idly, I could feel my own consciousness and will connect to Kurama's, as our goal synchronized. I could Kurama's mouth widen as if it was my own, the muscles in the jaw tightening, while shoulders tensed in preparation for a lunge. When Kurama darted forward, it was not just him directing the actions, but myself as well. And though I grimaced when the jaws of Kurama's muzzle clamped down on the man, I forced myself to keep the connection. The snapping of bones as they were crunched was as unpleasant as nails on a chalkboard and I could taste the copper tang of blood in my mouth.

Probably the worst part was knowing that since this was all mental and symbolic, the man could still feel everything, even as we took part of his very essence in the act of destroying him. Already, I could feel his memories flowing into me.

Though I found it distasteful, -because this man would most likely disappear before his memory returned- it was necessary and a consequence of the nature of this man's attack. I couldn't perform the Shintenshin or any of the techniques created by the Yamanaka, but I knew how to defend my mind. It was a mandatory training for anyone of Special Jonin Rank or Above, as well as for the ANBU. Though I'd never be able to do any Yamanaka Techniques, I could turn an attack like this to my advantage.

Normally, even if I did something like this, the person I was counter-attacking wouldn't lose their memory. But this guy had thrown his soul at me and that was quite a bit more dangerous, to both the victim and user. The memories still would've returned...eventually, but this guy would most likely have no body once he was ejected. They'd still erode within my own mind though and much quicker than they would have returned to this guy.

Part of what made the Yamanaka Clan so prominent, was the fact that they were the only ones who could use their techniques to full effect. It was why none of their techniques were secret and could be taught to most anybody. Their minds were naturally structured in such a way that they could retain any information they stole from the minds of others. For a non-Yamanaka, they'd disappear in a couple hours, if done right, which was usually enough time to write down whatever information they needed from their captive. For that reason, it never really came up much, because even if you missed something, the target was usually already a captive and the technique could be used again.

Now, sometimes, there were exceptions to the rule. People who were exceptionally proficient in the techniques and could retain the memories just as well as a Yamanaka. Those people were usually snatched up by the clan, made into apprentices and subtly manipulated into marrying into the family, either through themselves, or their children.

I was not one of those people. However, I had experience with the Kage Bunshin, which worked in a slightly similar way, except that I what I was getting were essentially my own memories when they dispelled. They were already mine, so there was no problem retaining them, beyond the normal forgetfulness of people. Plus, there was Kurama, who was ancient as fuck and though he was an asshole for most of his life (And still kind of was now) he was able to retain almost all of the memories that long life. This enabled us to be able to retain _some_ information, if we could get them when someone was stupid enough to try and invade our heads.

Not that there were many people that stupid, who would try.

The point was, I had just ripped most of what made this person who he was from him and he would die before he ever got it back. And I did it, despite knowing how horrible it probably was. Though I was angry, that wasn't the main reason I did what I just did. It was because I was now in an unfamiliar place, with what were most likely unfamiliar techniques and an unfamiliar language. I needed information and even the littlest bit would help.

Turning to the now visible form of Kurama, I already knew he was done. He had apparently been staring at me, as I thought. Looking him in the eye, I gave him a nod.

"Thanks."

There was a grunt in return, as he spoke, "**The information is already eroding. I doubt we even have half an hour. Any thoughts as to what we should focus on keeping?"**

I consulted our new memories and saw that, yes, they were already eroding. A lot of the information there was interesting and it gave me a good perspective on what had happened. But I wouldn't be able to keep it for long.

"Our first priority is the language. We won't get anywhere here if we can't talk to the locals. After that, keep the memories of our current surroundings. If we can get to a town with a library, we can shore up on anything else we'll need to know about this place. Finally, try to keep as much about this 'Magic' stuff as you can."

Kurama gave me a nod of confirmation as he faded away. It left me alone, in this blank expanse.

I turned and and looked out into the blank darkness and let out a sigh. What I wouldn't give to just go back to my poker game.

* * *

_Outside of Naruto's Soul/Mind_

When I came to again, in the physical world, I could see the man I now knew to be Zoldeo's spirit being ejected from my body. It looked like a violent affair, a black, shadowy fog-like substance shooting out of me, until formed into the original body of Zoldeo. The whole time, he was screaming in agony. He hovered in the air for a couple seconds, shaking and struggling against nothing. When he hit the ground, he finally stopped his screaming, but he was still shaking, with the occasional twitch. If I didn't know better, I'd think he'd have a chance to recover.

But I could already see his body being eaten away, unable to sustain itself. Zoldeo met my eyes and I could see confusion and pain there.

"W-where am I? Who am I? Why don't I have any memories...They feel so close, like they're on the tip of my tongue, but they're _just not there!_" There was a crazed look to him now, as he looked straight at me, "Where are they? You know where they are don't you! Give them to me! I want them back! _I want them back!"_ By the end, his voice was shrill and I was sure he would have attacked me if he could. However, half of his body was already gone and the rest was quickly fading away.

In the end, his death was kind of pitiful. Unable to move and not even knowing who he was. I didn't regret it though. Much as I had expected, Zoldeo had used his magic on many people and had gone through a number of bodies before finally getting stuck in Capricorn.

That reminded me to send a mental nudge to Kurama. From my new and temporary memories, I knew Capricorn didn't deserve what had happened to him and had probably been appalled at the things Zoldeo had done while in his body. If I could, I'd try and help him out. He seemed to be a decent sort.

There were more important things to deal with right now though, like the other man. From the information afforded me by Zoldeo's memories, I now knew this man as Hades. I also knew I only had moments, if I wanted to get him by surprise. The man was powerful, and I was sure if we were in my world, he would've been listed as an S-rank threati. But while he was dangerous, I was also sure I could take him.

There was one problem however. Already the information was kind of fuzzy, but there was something there. Grimoire Law. It was mainly a deterrent, but Hades would use it if he felt he needed to. Even if I went all out, and used Sage Mode and Bijuu Mode, an attack like that would still hurt, at the very least. It would also draw more attention than I really wanted. But the biggest reason was the simple fact was there a town nearby. It was barely in the radius of the spell, but I wouldn't risk it. So I had to take him out before he could use it.

To that end, I buried a fist in his gut, sending him through the ceiling of the basement. From the moment I had appeared here, he hadn't said a thing and had just watched on with curiosity as his comrade was ejected and then faded away. There had been no concern for his guild mate, not that I had expected him to show any from the memories I had of the man. And he hadn't looked at me as a threat. either, sure of his own power.

From this side of my fist, I was fairly sure he hadn't been expecting me to be as fast as I was. He hadn't been expecting an attack, per se, but he _had_ been ready for one, if the fist in my face was any indication. I chalked that up to paranoia on his part.

Still, the old man packed a punch. The floor of the basement was cracked from where my body hit it and my cheek stung almost as badly as that time Sakura had caught me peeking. Still, I'd created some distance so it gave me a moment to prepare.

Bringing my hands into a Ram seal, I reached for my chakra and tried to perform the Kage Bunshin. At first, it seemed like it would work as I could feel the energy in my body flowing, but as I tried to form it into the technique...nothing happened. Confused, I tried again, only to get the same result. With a frown, I closed my eyes and focused my attention on what was supposed to be the flow of my chakra.

Once again, I was met with a surprise. I hadn't noticed at first, because I now had the memories of it always being this way, but where once there had been nothing, there was now what I knew to be a Magical Container within my body. It had been integrated into the chakra network and where there had once been chakra flowing through my body, there was now a different type of energy. Magical Energy.

It seemed the Mages of this world had some kind of mutated Chakra Network. Or at least, that was my theory. There were a couple other differences, but I ignored them. I wondered how this had happened, but as soon as I asked the question, I answered myself. The Magic Zoldeo had tried to use on me, Huma Raise, fused the soul of the user to a new host body. Some things were carried over to the new body, however, like a Magical System. Well, I said carried over, but it was more like the magic formed a new one if there wasn't one already there, and fused with one already in existence. There were a bunch of other variables and tidbits that went into all the intricate details, but they weren't important right now either.

What was important was that I could no longer use chakra. Which meant I couldn't use any of the abilities and techniques I had come to rely on over the years. Which _also_ meant I was in a worse situation than I thought.

All of a sudden, my prospects for this fight didn't look so good.

Man, I'd really rather be playing poker right now.

Rubbing my face with my hand, I came to terms with the situation, at least as much as I could. I'd hoped to take Hades out, with what that guy was planning he deserved it, but I wasn't sure I could do it anymore. I had no idea how Kurama's chakra would react to this new Magical System and I had this feeling that if Kurama wasn't perfectly content (Okay, that may have been an exaggeration) in the seal, it probably would've failed. The only option I had was to use Zoldeo's magic and there were dangers to that too -like forgetting how to do a certain spell when I was right in the middle of casting it.- Nor could I use it to its full extent, as I could not call on any of the people he had 'subordinated.' Not that I would do so, even if I could.

Whatever I was going to do, I had to do it quick. Hades would probably go on the offensive in mere moments.

A glint near a pile of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling caught my eye. When I looked over there, I saw a golden key. A Golden Celestial Spirit Gate Key.

Huh, maybe I wasn't entirely screwed after all. Capricorn had been possessed by Zoldeo, and might be willing to help me out. Especially if I made him a promise to make sure I got his key to that girl Zoldeo was supposed to hold onto it for. Plus, according to Zoldeo's memories, the power of a Celestial Spirit was dependant on the power of their summoner and from what I could tell, I had even more magic than Zoldeo. (Most likely a consequence of the system forming in a body that already had an abundance of energy.) There was probably more to it than that, but it had to count for something.

Grinning, I picked up the key.

Which was when two lines of what seemed to be a kind of magical chain, a claw like grappling hook at the end of each one, came flying through the hole of the ceiling and grabbed on to me. The chains looked like a series of unconnected shards of diamond shaped magic. When the claws grabbed on to the back of my shoulder, they turned into a sharp, glowing light. I noticed all this, as the chains heaved and I was pulled into the ceiling, making another hole in the process, and out into the snow-covered forest.

Momentum carried me up into the air outside the cabin, but that was short lived as I was sent careening into the base of a large solid-looking pine tree. Unlike you'd think, this made grin. As a Ninja of Konoha, whose entire village was surrounded by trees of all types, we were taught how to use the terrain to our advantage. How to scale them without the aid of chakra, the best way to get from one branch to another and how to tell if a branch would be able to carry your weight. Things like that.

We were also taught how to handle being knocked into a tree, as being attacked in a mid-air was quite likely while fighting amongst the branches. As long as you had the presence of mind, as well as the necessary reflexes to maneuver yourself in the time between then and impact, it was fairly simple. As simple as turning my body so as to hit the tree with my feet first.

I landed like that, crouching horizontally on the trees bark, held there momentarily by the pressure momentum that I redirected to the tree so as to not be crushed. And it was a lot of momentum, as my feet splintered the tree. But I didn't let it distract me as I took hold of the magical chains and used the momentum to my advantage to _pull _even as I pushed at the tree with my feet.

The look on that old man's face as we went flying past each other was priceless. For my part, I just gave him a cheeky grin.

Through some more aerial maneuvering, I was able to land on my feet once more and facing the direction I'd sent Hades off into. My feet skidded along the snow covered ground, the snow pluming as the momentum attempted to carry me further. At the same time, I heard a crash and saw a large cloud of dust, off into the forest and the chains that had still been connected to my back had disappeared. It seems I had bought myself a little more time.

Not that my last reprieve had bought me as much as I had first expected or would've liked. Still, I took the moment to check if I had any injuries. My back was sore and probably bruised, but I could tell it was already healing, if a tad slower than usual. There was also a discomforting crick in my neck now and I just knew that wasn't gonna go away until after I had fell asleep. Neck pains were just a bitch like that. Other than that, there weren't any more injuries.

Which was surprising. Even with my natural durability as a Jinchuuriki and Shinobi, I'd expected there to be a bit more. Not even my cheek was bruised from that first punch. I took a small moment to contemplate it and was able to answer myself again.

It seemed Magical Energy was better for enhancing one's durability and strength than chakra. All Shinobi were able to augment their muscles to some degree through use of chakra, but it was a subconscious thing. Only Tsunade and Sakura were able to truly take that to the max and control it. The same thing seemed to be happening here, a subconscious augmentation of the body, but it was apparently also a basic technique to enhance it to a further degree using magic. Though not everyone had the same talent for it, most every Mage was able to do it to some degree beyond the subconscious reinforcement of musculature and bones.

Still, I shook myself and zoned into to the present. While it was useful to know, I needed to focus. The memories were distracting, which was another reason the technique was primarily used for interrogation. This was the moment I needed to try and up my odds of survival.

I reached into the pocket of my vest where I had stored the key and took it out. According to that one memory, I should be able to communicate with the spirit, by using the key.

Drawing my eyebrows together, I stared at the key and shouted. In my head.

_Oy, Goatface! Can you hear me?_

_!_

Somehow, I was able to get the impression the key -or more correctly, the spirit on the other side of the gate this key opened- was surprised someone was talking to him. Which was good, because it means I wasn't shouting at myself. Well, Kurama could probably hear me too, but that didn't count.

_Look, I know you just got possession of your body back, but do you think you could help me out? That Zoldeo guy is gone, but his Master is still here._

…

_If you help, I'll promise to do my best to get your key to that girl! That's what you promised to that Layla chick, right?_

This was the iffy part of my haphazard, thrown together plan-that-wasn't-much-of-a-plan. If Capricorn refused to help, I wasn't gonna force him. I wasn't that kind of guy. And If I survived, I'd still try and get this key to its rightful owner anyway, but he didn't need to know that.

_...Very well._

Grinning, I held out my arm with key in hand, as if putting it in a lock. As I turned my arm, I let my magic flow in a certain way that was so familiar and yet not at the same time. It didn't feel like I had done this dozens or hundreds of times, but I still knew what to do. With magic taking effect, I called out, "Gate of The Goat, Open! Capricorn, come forth!"

The recitation of words caused the key to start glowing with a golden light, and in a flash, I was no longer standing alone. Looking to my right, was Capricorn, still fading in from the Spirit World in a shower of golden motes. He was dressed differently than when he was possessed by Zoldeo and I recognized it as his usual state of dress. Where Zoldeo had dressed as something akin to a male stripper, Capricorn was dressed in something befitting a butler, in a twin-tailed suit. Despite how constricting it looked, I knew he had full range of movement. He was also still wearing those awesome shades.

Cracking him a grin as I pocketed the key once more, I said, "Thanks for being willing to help. I could really use it against this guy."

Capricorn simply gave me a nod, as he responded, "It is the duty of a Celestial Spirit to aid their summoner when needed. Though you have created no contract, you have done me a boon in freeing me, even if inadvertently. It is only right that I aid you now."

He tilted his head, as he added, as if in an afterthought, "Of course, if you want to summon me again before I am able to reach Miss Lucy, we must make a contract."

Any conversation after that was interrupted as several purple rings appeared around us. Out of reflex, I motioned to Capricorn move and though it was a signal we used in Konoha, he seemed to get the idea. We both sped from where we had previously been standing in opposite directions, him to the right and myself to the left. The moment we were in the clear was the same moment the circle activated and a large spherical ball of purple light exploded into being. It threw me further than I intended in my dash from from the circle.

Landing in a roll, I was barely able to avoid a barrage of purple orbs of light. The orbs kept coming and I'd taken out a kunai to try and deflect a few. It seemed to be working, but it didn't look like the kunai would be able to take it for long. Still, I kept it up and tried to regroup with Capricorn, who seemed to be having an easier time dodging than myself.

That was to be expected, I suppose, as Celestial Spirits were immensely powerful and only really limited by their summoners. I guess that meant I hadn't screwed up with the summoning.

Finally though, my kunai broke under the strain I was putting it through and some of the blasts of light made it through. Each one felt like I was getting slugged by a blunt kunai. In other words, _they stung like a bitch._

I didn't bother pulling out another kunai, as it would have been a waste. Instead I just kept dodging to the best of my ability, while Capricorn and I tried our best to move forward. It took a bit of doing, but soon we had hit a stride and started working together, each of us moving in a zigzagging path that crossed each other. We had to time it just right so as to not get hit, but we finally made it past line of trees that led into the forest.

When we passed, the barrage stopped and we came face to face with Hades once more. He had started to chuckling as we came to a stop, an unspoken pause to the battle.

"I'm impressed. Not only did you resist Zoldeo's Huma Raise, but you have secured the Spirit as an Ally. Though I find it curious that you were able to use Celestial Spirit Magic. Did they have similar magic in your world? Are you even able to understand me?"

Well, we _did_ have summoning techniques in my world, but they were quite a bit different to Celestial Spirit Magic. And that reminded me that I needed to figure out what had happened to my connection to the Toads, now that I had no chakra. Anyway, there was no reason to give this guy any more information than necessary. Which was just about no information at all.

That was the idea, anyway, but my mouth apparently had an idea of its own.

"Your buddy bit off a bit more than he could chew. And of course I can understand you; unlike your wrinkly old ass, my hearing isn't giving out."

Mentally, I grimaced at not being able to keep my mouth shut, but I also couldn't help the small grin that appeared on my face. The look that had appeared on Hades' face was worth it.

I wasn't just being a smart-ass though, as I was gathering magic in preparation. As with summoning Capricorn, the sensation was both familiar and not, as I subtly used the very same Human Subordination Magic Hades had taught to Zoldeo. He'd probably figure out what was going on at some point, and that might tip him off on what exactly had happened when Zoldeo had attempted to possess me...But I couldn't afford to not go all out.

At this point, my goal was to simply get away. Hades was powerful and if I didn't have a big enough head start, he'd catch up in no time. Luckily for me, all I really needed to do was reach the nearby town. Grimoire heart's biggest protection at the moment was no one knowing where they were and the fact that despite being one of the most dangerous Dark Guilds, they stayed relatively below radar. Most of the time anyways.

The point was, if the town nearby was destroyed, Grimoire Heart would need to stay as low key as possible for awhile. Not many Dark guilds were able to destroy a town, especially one that was home to a Rune Knight Outpost.

And in all honesty, I wasn't much of a threat to his plans or his guild. The fight was more because I'd attacked him, than it was about the potential of me telling someone Grimoire Heart had been near here. That would be an annoyance at most, much less than the manhunt that would ensue if he destroyed that town like he had so many others. They'd avoid it of course, like they had all the other ones, but it would cause them to halt any other plans they had going on at the moment.

Hades spoke once more, a frown on his face. "So, that's how we're going to go about this then? I was hoping we might be able to talk peacefully, but you seem disinclined. Such a waste of potential." At that, the man shook his head and started gathering magic at the point of his finger.

It was close. I had an instant to move as a sharp white line blasted towards me. As I started to dodge to my left, the magic shot passed my shoulder, where my head had been less than half a second before. And that was with Human Subordination magic weakening the guy. If I hadn't started using it, I'd most likely be dead right now.

But I wasn't and the fight was still on. While I had dodged, Capricorn had shot forth and engaged in hand to hand. The old man was decent, but the Spirit obviously had the advantage. With a grin, I joined in.

A leaping stride brought me close, just as Hades blocked a punch to his chest and I took the opportunity to land a kick to his his ribs. To his credit, the Dark Mage only gave out a grunt and a slight widening of his eyes. Using the momentum from my kick, I flipped myself into the air to try and land a heel drop on his shoulder, but my leg was caught by his hand.

Not missing a beat, Capricorn tried to swiftly knee the man in his other ribs, but that, too, was caught. With one hand, he pushed the Goat away, but when he tried to throw me like a ragdoll, I twisted to face the ground, hit the ground with the palms of my hands and used the momentum to turn my body into a spring as I used my free leg to mule kick him in the stomach. As he was forced from the ground due to the power of my kick, he released my leg and I flipped myself upright with a grimace. Twisting around like that had caused my right leg to ache fiercely and it hurt to even stand on.

Looking back to the fight, apparently Hades had used his Chain Magic to bring him back down to the ground with one hand. his other occupied with a chain that had hooked on to Capricorn who...was being thrown at me liking a wrecking ball.

My eyes widened as I braced myself to catch the Goat-man as he impacted me. The force he had been thrown with threw us both into the side of another tree. This time, I was in no state to maneuver myself and while we survived, the tree did not. There was a large 'creeeaaak,' as the tree tumbled, luckily in the other direction.

"Ugh, Goat-Face, your heavy. Get off."

From the rubble of the now destroyed tree's base, I pushed Capricorn off of me. I was fairly sure he was just dazed. As I started to stand up, my body screamed at me in protest. Not only was my back throbbing even worse than before, I'm fairly sure I had just cracked a couple ribs. I wasn't sure I could move my left shoulder fully either.

My eye for the injuries of others wasn't all that good unless the person in question was bleeding, but as far as I could tell, Capricorn was a lot better off than me.

Still, to think Hades was that strong, even under the influence of Human Subordination. I couldn't help but think that maybe I just wasn't experienced enough with it. Even though I had the memories of it, this was still only my first time actually using it. Just because I had the memories, it didn't mean I had the experience. It wasn't like the Kage Bunshin in that regard.

Speaking of, less than half of Zoldeo's memories remained at this point. I'd check to see how Kurama was doing, but I didn't want to interrupt him in the middle of his work.

A cold breeze swept through the forest, and I shuddered. I really wasn't dressed for this climate. My vest was covered in various seals that I'd added to it as I was learning Fuuinjutsu, several of them all aimed towards keeping it dry and at a comfortable temperature. But that was just one piece of clothing, it would help, but not enough. Not to mention, without being able to refresh the seals with chakra, they'd probably give out halfway through the night.

Still, that gave me an idea.

Turning to Capricorn, who looked like he had finally come to his senses, I asked, "Goat-Face, do you think you can keep tall, dark and wrinkly busy for a few moments? I have an idea."

The Spirit gave me a nod, and I noticed that one of the lenses of his sunglasses were cracked. That made me frown. Those were some awesome shades and it was sad that they'd been broken.

There was some crunching of snow from the direction we had been flung from, and I didn't need to look to know that it was Hades. Capricorn just gave me a look as he stood and then focused on the enemy.

Hades looked a little banged up, but nothing major. We had definitely come out the worse in that exchange. His wrinkled face was set in a smirk, as his one eye looked upon us.

"You survived, I see. I didn't expect any less, of course. It would be pitiful if you died to such a small love-tap. This has been amusing so far, I'd hate for it to end so shortly."

That smirk was infuriating, but I was able to hold myself back. Capricorn said nothing, but shot forwards once more. As Chain magic was shot towards him, he was able to dodge them this time and the magic faded away. It was replaced with another barrage of purple orbs, but Capricorn didn't show any panic as he made a of avoiding them, using his impressive leg power to leap from one place to another.

Inwardly, I smirked. The moment Hades had appeared, I'd started up with the Human Subordination magic again to weaken him, but this time I did my best to mimic what my memories of Zoldeo's own use of it were like. It seemed to have worked better than last time, as the Chain Magic had been just a tad off aim. They would have missed even if Capricorn hadn't dodged. And the barrage of purple orbs were slower than the first time, making them not much of a threat.

Still, there was something else I needed to do.

Reaching into my other pouch, I pulled out three rectangular slips of paper, an inkwell and a calligraphy brush.

Seals were, at their most basic, simply another way to direct energy to a certain cause. Not necessarily chakra, as I knew there existed seals that could convert regular, ordinary fire or electricity into chakra, rather than the other way around. However, as primarily a shinobi art and due to the fact chakra was so abundant, every sealing language was based on it. Every seal was meant to deal with chakra in some way.

But that didn't mean it wouldn't react to a different type of energy.

Fuuinjutsu was dangerous. Even a lot of the most basic seals touched upon Time and Space in some capacity, if only lightly. And messing around with either was asking for trouble, if you didn't know exactly what you were doing. If you messed up a Seal, there was a good chance it would literally blow up in your face. The more intricate a Seal, the bigger a chance you'd mess up and the bigger the consequences.

So, if I used a Seal meant to be used with chakra, with a different type of energy, there was a good chance it'd blow up in my face. If it was simple enough, it might even do part of what it was meant for.

Now, if that said 'simple Seal' was meant to cause explosions in the first place…

It was a gamble, I'd admit. But as far as I could tell, the worst that could happen in this situation was that they didn't work. At that point, we'd have to continue on as before and hope we got lucky, or I'd die. So I continued to start on my Seals, using my right hand to paint curving brushstrokes onto the first slip of paper, creating the symbols that would turn it into an exploding tag.

As I finished the first one, a large crash brought my attention to the fight. I was able to see a wall of purple light, that got bigger the further away it got from Hades,head for Capricorn, who was able to dodge once again and close in. As they went hand to hand once more, Capricorn got more and more hits in and I could see Hade's expression turn perplexed.

He looked at the scar in the ground, that was already being covered with snow, and then looked back to the Celestial Spirit. The puzzled expression on his face slowly melted away and turned into a frown. A glance was thrown at me and then to the Goat, and then back and forth again.

It seemed he had figured out he was being weakened, but not which one of us was doing it. That made me give an inward sigh of relief, as I finished the second tag. I immediately started on the last, as I kept some awareness of the fight.

Several orbs of light were sent at me, but I didn't move. There was no need to dodge, I could tell, and before the man could focus past the impeding influence of my magic, Capricorn had forced him into hand-to-hand once more. That gave me the time to finish, and I grinned, stashing the brush and ink back into my pouch.

Perfect timing too, as Hades had managed to push Capricorn back. He was most likely starting to counter the Human Subordination magic that was weakening him, so this fight was just gonna get harder from here on out if I didn't finish it now.

In the back of my mind, I found it fitting that this had all started when I'd been gambling for fun and now it ended on a gamble for my life.

As I arrived In front of him, I threw a punch with my bad arm, aiming at the face. When I was blocked by a forearm, I slipped under it and slapped a tag to his side, willing my magic into the Seal.

"_That's_ for being a general dick."

I didn't stop as I stepped around to his back, slapping him with another Tag.

"_That's_ for your minion trying to fuck with me."

Continuing on, I veritably slammed the last Seal onto his chest. Each Exploding Tag had been injected with magic and the fact they hadn't blown up yet was both good and bad. Bad, because that meant they might not work, and good because they were supposed to have a delay between being primed and the actual explosion. As I jumped away, I let out a last remark.

"And _that_ is for interrupting my poker game!"

My feet had barely left the ground when the first tag went off. One moment, there had been nothing, and then there was a 'hiss,' 'sizzle,' 'BOOM!' as an explosion twice as big as I had expected from the tag was let out. The force of the explosion propelled me away from Hades, careening once more through the air, but also giving me some nasty burns along the way.

I was able to to turn myself so that when I landed, I was able to shoot off into the trees. There had been nothing but a moment to be able to give Capricorn a nod of thanks, that signalled I no longer needed his help. From the corner of my eye as I sped past, I saw him disappear into sparkling, golden motes.

As I fled the battle, I didn't wait to see the results of the last two explosions. Either they'd work and give me the time I needed, or they wouldn't in which case this was still probably my best chance of escape. Though fleeing left a bad taste in my mouth, I knew it was the smart thing to do.

Still, as I hopped from tree branch to tree branch, I couldn't help complaining.

"Man, and today had started out looking so good, too."

* * *

_Several Minutes Later. _

I had to lean against the wall of a building, to catch my breath and steady myself. Luckily, I'd managed to make it to the village. Of course, I had no idea what had happened to the guy in the weird, evil-overlord getup whose name was escaping me at the moment. It seemed the memory of the man had eroded, although there were still a few flashes of memory about him that I knew weren't mine.

At this point, all I knew was that he had pulled me from my world to this new one and that he was strong. That entire fight had taken less than 5 minutes and the guy barely had a scratch on him, right up until the end.

That thought made me grimace, as I was reminded of my own injuries. The snow and cold air were irritating my burns, which were thankfully already healing. My back still ached something fierce and as I predicted, that crick in my neck was still there. Of course, the worst injuries were my cracked ribs and I had apparently not noticed during the fight that I may have fractured my pelvis. All that hopping through the trees had only made that last one worse and by the time I arrived in the village, I had a slight limp.

Letting out a sigh, I looked up at the sky, the clouds obscuring the stars.

This wasn't my world. I needed to figure out my plan of action and my long and short term goals.

Obviously, I wanted to get home, but I doubted that would happen anytime soon. If I'd had chakra, I probably would of just spent a whole lot of time experimenting with Fuuinjutsu, completely ignoring the fact that no one before me had actually achieved traveling to a different universe. I didn't have chakra, however. Instead, I now had magic and apparently that's what a lot of this world ran on.

If I wanted to get anywhere, I needed to know how to use magic. Not just to get home, but without my chakra I was almost powerless, beyond my own physical fitness. From what little basics of the stuff I knew, it should be theoretically possible to recreate some of them, or at least find an analogue to them through magic. In my experience, you didn't have goals like mine without having to get into a few fights.

So then, I needed to know magic and how to get around in this place. It'd help to know as much as I could about this world, so as to not draw unwanted attention.

I'd also promised that Goat-face that I'd help him. The memories of exactly how were already kind of fuzzy, as if just out of reach. I was fairly sure they were there, but I'd probably need a reminder.

And at some point, I'd need to deal with Grimoire Heart. They were the ones who brought me here, from what I could remember. There was something wiggling around in my memories, something Zoldeo had studied which led to me being here, but it just wouldn't come to mind.

Another sigh escaped me, as I pushed off of the wall of the building. First things first, I needed shelter for the night.

Uzumaki Naruto was not gonna die to something as lame as hypothermia.

* * *

A/N: So, the next two chapters are already written. They just need some editing. This chapter may be liable to further edits as well down the road, but probably nothing major.

Preempting any assumptions about Naruto's magic, I'll say that his use of Human Subordination Magic and Celestial Spirit magic were a one time thing. As the story progresses, Naruto will start to recreate his techniques and gain some new ones on the way.


	2. Homesick

Meant to get this out yesterday, but the night before I had trouble sleeping ad the sleeping pills took made me sleepier the day after. SO I basically did the stuff I absolutely had to do yesterday and then fell asleep.

Anyway, this chapter is much shorter than chapter 1, but chapter 3 should make up for it, whenever that gets posted.

Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own either Naruto or Fairy Tail

* * *

Chapter 2

_Peony Town, Library_

My leg was tapping at the floor again. Frowning, I used a hand to hold it in place and keep it still. No matter how many times I did this, it would start up again, or I'd start doing something else without noticing. Like scratching the back of my neck. Which I was doing. Right now.

I let out a sigh of frustration, as I forced my hand away from my neck. Instead, I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I looked at the stack of books on the table in front of me. Currently, I was in the town library doing the same thing I had done everyday for the past week. Reading.

Trying to, at any rate.

No matter how much I tried, I was never one for learning from books, though I'd tried time and time again throughout my life. It had been the bane of my existence in the academy. I much preferred doing things kinesthetically, though even then I still had problems, sometimes. To be honest, It was surprising I had been able to keep this up for an entire week

Leaning back in my chair and letting my hands fall to my sides, I decided to relax for a bit. The library was kind of small in comparison to the one that had been in Konoha, but I knew it was still larger than one you'd find in most towns of this size. Partly, that was due to the Outpost of government soldiers I now knew to be Rune Knights. Or re-knew, perhaps? I'd known it once before, after all.

Frowning, I decided that, nah, using the word 're-knew' was stupid.

So, since there was a contingent of the government's soldiers, many of whom knew some kind of magic in addition to the Runes that they were named after, there was a larger than normal library. It was stocked with texts on quite few different types of magic, which had been helpful to his goal, but not exactly what he was looking for. There was also the standard texts on more basic magic and magical theory, which _were _what he was looking for, but not in the least bit engaging. And that was all in addition to the more mundane books about the world, which he now knew as Earthland, and the country, Fiore, as well as regular stuff like horror fiction and romance.

As one might guess, the shelves were quite high and just as full. Not to mention dusty.

_Man, what I wouldn't give for the Kage Bunshin right now…_

**Suck it up, brat. We won't get anywhere if all you do is complain. Why don't don't you do something, for once!**

A tick mark appeared on my forehead, as I growled out, in my mind, _I _am _doing something! And nobody asked you, you stupid fox!_

There was a scoff, as I felt Kurama's presence fade to the back of my mind. The lazy bastard was probably going to take a nap. At least it'd leave me alone in my head for awhile.

Sometimes it was tiresome having to share headspace.

Staring at the book in front me, I thought about what I'd learned so far. In addition to what little Kurama had been able to salvage from Zoldeo's memories, I now had a more complete grasp of the basics. Stuff like enhancing my muscles, or infusing something with my magic. The first was straightforward, but the second less so. By infusing something with my magic, I could do the same thing to it as I did to body -make it more durable. But there were also more possibilites, and simply by pouring my magic into an object, like say, a weapon, it would allow it to better defend against and withstand magical attacks.

As an example, if I had done so to one of my kunai, I may have been able to slice through those chains, or the blasts of what were something called 'Bullet Magic,' instead of just deflecting them and wearing out my kunai. The fact that I hadn't done so tells me that Zoldeo either never bothered to learn, or had spent so little time with the technique that I was probably one of the first memories to erode.

There were more advanced applications, but they required one to already have a certain kind of magic. In that way, it was similar to how one could use elemental affinities in my world.

Beyond that though, there were things I still didn't entirely get. Just how did one go about turning their magic into its elemental varieties? Half of the books just used a bunch of flowery speech that amounted to nothing but, 'Do what comes naturally.' The other half were all talk about using things called 'Magical Circles,' that looked a bit like the rings that old guy used a couple times. When I first say that, I thought it might have been something like Fuuinjutsu, but no, they there just as confusing and flowered up as the other books.

My lips thinned, as I thought about it. It seemed like there were two distinct camps about how to go about using magic, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what was similar between the two. Unless I could find someone to ask, I didn't know how far I'd actually get on my own.

Simply experimenting hadn't worked out so far. Even the Rasengan, which was just shape manipulation -if advanced shape manipulation- was simply forming and moving energy into the required shape. But when I'd tried to shape magic, even in just a basic sphere, it had just dissipated before I could try and do anything.

The thing was, I didn't know how to go about finding someone to teach me. Not without some kind of background papers, anyway. It's not like I could join the Rune Knights without any identification and most tutors and schools that taught various magics all required the same, or had you start at an early age. I did _not_ want to be stuck learning magic with a bunch of kids.

A Guild might be an option, but as far as I knew, you already had to be an actual mage to join one.

Sighing, I closed the book in front of me and got up to start putting the books back. Maybe a break to clear my head would help.

* * *

_Peony Town, Outside_

Stepping from out of the library, I looked up at the sky. For once, it was completely clear, with not a cloud in sight. This town was located in the North of Fiore, and was prone to cold weather. Most of the time, it was cloudy, even during the summers.

Though pretty far inland, it was still close to the coast, which was part of why they had such cloudy weather. To the south and west was a long mountain range, close enough to be able to cast a shadow over the village. There was supposed to be a pretty big river even further to the west, with a few other towns in between. Finally, to the east was an even thicker forest than the one that covered the mountains in the south. The trees there were supposed to be huge, apparently.

Most of the missions from this part of the country went to Blue Pegasus, which was located on the western side side of the mountain range, but southwest from the town.

I'd learned parts of all that from Zoldeo's memories, but quite a bit of it was from the books in the library as well. It was best to know as much about the area as possible.

Taking my eyes from the sky, I set out to trudge through the snow and explore the town.

Most of the homes were built from wood, in a log cabin style and quite a few were large. There were some stone buildings, but most of them were small cottages or some kind of government building. All in all, the place was pretty homely.

But it wasn't Konoha.

I let out a longing sigh, before I could help myself. I'd been doing a lot of sighing lately and had tried to cut back on it, but sometimes they just escaped me. Still, I shook my head, to clear it. There was no use in thinking about it right now. It was most likely going to take some time for me to find a way home and angsting about it and doing nothing was not what I needed to do right now.

Of course, If I was going to adhere to that to the letter, I probably wouldn't be out on a walk right now. But all work and no play has proven to be a recipe for a very irritable and grumpy Naruto. And no one wants that, because an irritable and grumpy Naruto tends play malicious pranks on people to spread his suffering.

That was my excuse, anyway.

As I walked through town, taking in the sights, I noticed people milling about. Walking from place to place, going about their business. I figured I must be coming up on the marketplace, where it was usually busiest during the day.

The Marketplace was a large, open space, with a fountain in the center. Said fountain was currently frozen, but I was sure in the summer it probably looked quite nice. There were several buildings, some made from wood in the log-cabin style, but with large windows carved into them, with people behind them peddling their wares, and some of the buildings made from stones, most of which had a kind of wooden stall built into them. They were all arranged in a ring, facing the fountain in the center.

Though the place was busy, there still wasn't that many people. A consequence of being such a small town, I guessed. The sounds of people chatting with each other, and others haggling for their goods echoes throughout the place. And there were still others, who were simply loitering around, just content to be in the presence of people and do nothing.

My nose twitched, as a pleasant aroma wafted under it. Sniffing a bit, I followed where my nose led me and wound up at a stall selling pastries. Coming up to the stall, I gave the girl at the stand, who reminded me a bit of Ayame, at least in terms of demeanor, a smile and asked what she had to offer.

She may have read more into that then I meant her to, as she smirked and batted her eyelashes at me, while saying, "Well, there's a lot to offer!" There was a small pause as she then went about describing the various pastries on sale.

In the end, I chose a flower shaped pastry filled with some kind of pudding. Reaching into one my various pockets, I pulled out the necessary amount of this world's currency; Jewels. A friend I had made had lent me the money and though I felt bad about it, my only other option at the time had been to steal it from somebody else. Still, I'd made to sure to promise to pay him back.

And not just for the money

Giving the girl the necessary amount of money, I gave her another smile of thanks, and headed off with my pastry, before any kind of conversation could pick up. Happily munching away, I decided on a random direction and took off.

After some time, I finished my pastry and bothered to look around at where I wound up. As far as I could tell, I was near the 'entertainment district' of the town. Well, I said that, but it was actually smaller and less full of scummy places than it sounded. Mostly it was just the area of town that was full of several restaurants, a bar and a theater. There was also a small park, which I was coming upon now, where it seemed all of the snow had been cleared away, showing the dirt and grass that lay beneath.

The Park itself was a decently large, open area with several benches. A swing set and sanbox, among other things, were also there for the use of children. Even from where I was standing, I could also tell that the park had a very nice view of the mountain range.

Getting closer, I came across an amusing sight. A boy was chatting to a girl around his own age, and the girl was blushing and giggling. In the boy's hands were a pencil and sketchpad and the pencil was moving along the page, even as the boy looked at the girl.

The boy was wearing ridiculously light clothing for this kind of weather and climate, his attire consisting of only a white t-shirt, some blue pants and some hiking shoes. He had medium length blond hair, in no particular style, just letting it grow naturally and large dark eyes. His face was still boyish, being several years younger than myself, and his frame was slight. If I estimated correctly, he was probably around 14.

The girl had brown hair and brown eyes and was wearing several layers of warm clothing. A sweater and jacket and thick pants. Black for the sweater, blue for the jacket and pants. Probably her most attention grabbing asset and most likely the reason the boy was chatting her up was her breasts, which were large for a girl her age.

I simply watched for a few minutes, until finally the boy finished and the girl had to leave, blushing and giggling all the way. The blonde haired boy had a satisfied smirk on his face and didn't notice me as I started to walk over.

Calling out to grab his attention, I was already halfway over. "Oy, Eve! Having fun?"

Startled, the boy I knew as Eve Tearm turned around at my voice. When he noticed it was me, he smiled and I couldn't help but grin. Eve was the same guy who had lent me the money I had used to buy that pastry. As such, he was firmly labelled in my mind as 'A Nice Guy.'

He was a fairly pleasant kid, if a tad too polite. Generally in a happy mood and always having something to talk about, he was a bright contrast to the somewhat dreary town. I had also learned that he was an absolutely incorrigible flirt with women, even at his young age.

So he was a bit like Jiraiya, but less grumpy and actually had what my sensei had referred to as 'Game.' Jiraiya never did listen to me, when I told him that using terms like that just made him look lame.

"Ah, Naruto! I didn't see you there. Are you done at the library for the day?"

Reaching him, my grin widened, as we started to chat, "Maybe. I decided to take a break for a bit and walk around. What about you? It seems like you were having a nice time." Here, I pointed out to the sketchpad, which now that I was closer I could see had a decent sketch of the girl Eve had been talking to. Much as I had predicted, a certain part of the girls anatomy was marginally more detailed than the rest.

My friend smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck, "Ah, but when I see something beautiful I can't help but want to capture it, even if in just a pale imitation like a drawing!"

I couldn't help chuckling as we walked towards one of the benches. That was just like Eve, touting the 'magnificence of beauty' that were women, even when there weren't any around. On first glance, you'd think he was a pervert and while that may be partway true, as far as I knew, Eve pretty much always treated women respectfully.

Well, he treated everyone that way, but he went out of his way and turned it up to 11 for women.

Sitting down on, we both looked out over to the mountains. From the position of the sun, I'd say it was probably around 4o'clock and the mountain's shadow covered about half the town. It really was a nice view, the sun poking up just above the mountain. Though most of the mountain range was to the south, part of it went further along and was pretty much directly west of the town. With the coast to the north and the forest to the east, it gave the town a kind of closed-off feeling. Like it was cut-off from the rest of the world, allowed to go about peacefully, never really needing to worry about the outside world.

It made me restless.

Turning back to our conversation, if only to take my mind off of other things, I asked, "So, what was the girl's name this time? She seemed to like you well enough."

"Her name was Penelope. We've got a date in 3 days." Eve was smiling as he said this, staring out at the mountains as well.

Smirking a little, I decided to tease him a bit, "Oh? Do you want me to find some other lodgings that night then, perhaps?"

That made the boy blush and start to stutter denials, making me chuckle a bit.

My comment made me think about the place I was currently staying at, however. Not only had Eve lent me money, he was also the person who was letting me live with him for, the time being. The night that I had arrived in town, I had started looking for some place for shelter from the snow. A couple hours after I had started looking and with no luck, I was freezing my ass off and was about ready to break into someone's house for the night.

Luckily for me, I came across Eve. He'd apparently been out for a midnight stroll and when he came across poor, freezing to death Naruto, he had been all to happy to let me stay the night. I would've left the next morning, but the boy insisted that I could stay there for as long as I needed. And it wasn't as if he didn't have the space, either. His house was one of the few large stone cottages, just as big as some of the larger log cabins.

I never pried into why, exactly, he lived in such a large house alone. I could guess.

"N-no! You don't need to do that! And doing such a thing with Penelope on the first date would be improper! Hahha, ha, ha haaa." He was chuckling weakly at the end there, and he still blushing a bit.

I couldn't help myself and started chuckling heartily, myself, causing him to pout a bit.

"Well, what about you? Do you have a girlfriend Naruto?" Ah, so he was trying to turn the tables on me, was he? Well, I wasn't gonna let him get to me.

Shrugging, I simply gave a noncommittal, "Maybe."

Though the answer was perhaps truer than I'd meant it to be. Back in Konoha, my love life was...complicated. Yeah, complicated was good word.

Things between me and Sakura were always a tad awkward and it was the same with Hinata. About two years ago, both of them had confessed that they loved me, and though at the time I had kind of shrugged off one and dismissed the other, when things had settled down after Obito and Madara I'd been confronted by both.

The first time Hinata had confessed during Pein's attack, there had been more important things to deal with and I'd decided to put it off until later. Sakura's, I had, at the time, not even truly considered. Some part of me had known it was real, but another part of me had gotten so used to rejection from her, I had dismissed it out of hand for several reasons.

Which was another thing that added to the awkwardness of my relationship with Sakura. Sasuke was back now. I knew my friends, and I could tell Sakura was still torn between Sasuke and myself. Sakura's confession at the time had been born from her becoming convinced that Sasuke would never come back. But I hadn't given up on Sasuke yet and I was of the opinion Sakura should be able to choose for herself. And now he had been back, for two years and it didn't look like he was ever going to try and leave again.

My only saving grace on that front was that at least Sasuke was in the same boat, what with Karin constantly after him. That girl was something else. Don't get me wrong, I'd been happy to find another member of the Uzumaki, but Karin was….eccentric, to say the least.

Hinata's confession had kind of come out the blue, as far as I was concerned. I had never expected the shy girl to have those kinds of feelings and while I knew she was nice, I didn't actually know all that much about her, besides a few basic facts. I'd definitely made sure to get to know her better after that, of course and she'd become a dear friend, but...well, it was still awkward.

Anyway, after the last fight with Madara, Sakura, Hinata and I all had a long talk that had basically amounted to, 'Let's wait and see.' Two years later and we were still at the 'Let's wait,' part. A lot of that had to do with how busy we had all been, since that day, but part of it was that I simply had no idea what to do. And that was without taking into account all the other various women who I now knew had developed a crush on me over the years. Hindsight really gave one some clarity when they had a better understanding of people and relationships then they did at the time.

And I don't care what Sasuke says, he did _not_ have to point all of them out to me. I'd definitely gained a much better understanding of women in their feelings than when I was kid and I was no longer an oblivious fool, thank you very much.

...Okay, so maybe he had to point out a few of them, but so what!

"Uhh, are you okay Naruto?"

Eve's question snapped me out of my thoughts on my dysfunctional love-life. Apparently, I had been projecting an aura of gloom as my mind had wandered.

Giving Eve a reassuring smile, I said "Yeah, I'm fine. Just...thinking about home."

He gave out an 'Ah' of understanding and then turned back to looking at the view. I did the same and that was how the next few minutes passed by. It was a comfortable silence, that neither of us seemed to want to break. Eventually, I closed my eyes, just letting the cold wind wash over me.

The silence couldn't last forever though, and Eve had apparently thought of a question.

"So, what exactly have you been studying in the library anyway? You've gone there every day since I met you."

Opening my eyes, I looked at him, pursing my lips. I debated on whether or not to tell him. Really, there wasn't much of a reason to keep what I was researching secret. It wasn't illegal to learn magic on your own or anything, so I was clear on that front. In the end, I decided to tell him.

"I'm trying to learn magic. I know the very simplest of the basics, but that's about it, so I'm trying to learn more. It's...not going so great, to be honest." I almost sighed at the end there, but I was able to bite it back this time.

From his side of the bench, Eve blinked at me. Then he smiled and said, "Oh, is that all? Why didn't you just ask me for some help?"

That caused me to stare at him dully for a moment. And then my eyes widened as I registered what he was saying. "Eh! You mean you know magic?!"

My friend was scratching the back of his head looking a bit bashful. "Ah, did I not ever mention that? Yeah, I use Snow Magic. My father was teaching me before he...before he died." He looked a little sad by the end, but he shook it off quick enough.

I opened my mouth to ask something, but hesitated. It wasn't particularly my business and as an orphan myself, I knew how painful it could be to talk about your parents. The fact that I hadn't known who my parent's ever were until I was 16 didn't matter, I had still felt sad that I would never know them. And my parents weren't the only people I had ever lost. Even now, it still sometimes hurt to think of Jiraiya or Neji, but I had been able to move on, for the most part. Talking with my friends about it had really helped out, especially that talk I had with Iruka after I first learned of Jiraiya's death.

But as far as I knew, Eve didn't have anyone to talk to. Sure, he was constantly flirting with women, but not once had I actually seen him converse or hang out with anyone he called a friend.

_Except me_, I realized. Since we'd met, I'd come to consider Eve as a friend, but I knew that was just part of my personality. It was how I did things. We weren't as close as I was with any of my friends back in Konoha, but a friend was friend. So, I guess it was up to me. I could tell the death of his father, or both of his parents had happened awhile ago, but I could also tell the wound was still sore.

So, even though I had told myself I wouldn't pry, I steeled myself and asked, "Eve...do you mind if I ask what happened to your parents? I don't want to pry, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but In my experience, talking about it helps."

He gave me a wan smile, as if he was forcing himself and said, "I don't mind. It...it happened a few years ago, but it's still hurts a bit, you know?" He paused for second, looking at his hands which were now resting on his lap, before continuing, "My mother died when I was small, from an illness, so I only have a few memories of her. Dad always said I got my looks from her.

"Anyway, my dad was a captain of the Rune Knights, stationed at the outpost. Sometimes he got called away to help out somewhere else, but it was always temporary and he'd come back here. He used Snow Magic too, and all of his buddies would always be jealous of how he could wear such loose clothing in cold weather like ours." Here, he took a deep breath and shuddered, but soldiered on, "When I was 11, though, he got called by the Magical Council to help out with a Dark Guild that had taken over a town to the west. They successfully defeated the Dark Guild, but...Dad didn't make it."

Eve took a breath to calm himself, as retelling the story had obviously brought the memories to the surface. I felt bad, but knew it would probably help in the long run. Still, watching him try and get a hold of himself, I put a hand on his shoulder. It seemed to help, as he was able to calm his breathing and he gave me a grateful smile.

I gave him a nod and took my hand from his shoulder. Smiling a bit sadly, I said, "When my Sensei died, I was in a rut for a bit. But then, I talked to a friend of mine and realized that's not what he would have wanted. So, since then, I've done my best to do what I think would make him proud."

Eve seemed to consider that, for a moment, before saying, "I've been thinking about becoming a Rune Knight, and helping people, like my Dad did. He might have died doing it, but at least he helped the people that Dark Guild were making suffer. So, I want to do something to help others too, in his memory. Becoming a Rune Knight like him seems like a good way to do it."

Smiling, I told him, "That sounds like a good goal to have. I'm sure your father would approve, no matter what you end up doing."

Eve scratched his head again and gave a more lively smile. Then, he cleared his throat, and asked, "So you said you were having some trouble? Maybe I can help." It was obviously an attempt to change the subject, but I let it pass.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I answered him, "Ah, well…," Here I let out a sigh I didn't bother to suppress. "I'm just not getting how it works, I guess. There's simply a lot of talk about doing what comes naturally or using Magical Circles to map out what you want to achieve.

But there's nothing there that explains exactly how to achieve something like creating a ball of fire, or using magic to create something like a sphere. I guess I was expecting something more straightforward, or something like an instruction manual."

On the other side of the bench, Eve gave a 'hrmmm,' of thought. His head tilted back and forth as if pondering something. Finally, he said, "I think your problem is how you're viewing magic. You're thinking like magic is just a list of different spells to learn. Like you could learn just how to throw a ball of fire and then go and learn how to do the same with lightning.

"Technically, I guess you could do that, but it's pretty inefficient. Most people devote themselves to an entire style of magic, not an amalgam of different spells. Sometimes you'll come across people who know more than one style, but they're usually pretty powerful and it comes from practicing magic for so long." Eve paused for a second, closing his eyes and contemplating how to word things.

When he finally started again, he said, "It's also important to remember that one's Mindset is key.

"Usually a person's magic is a reflection of some aspect of themselves, a symbol for who they are or maybe a moment in their life that shaped them. For example, I didn't learn Snow Magic just because it's what my Dad used. It's an important part of who I am, it reflects not only my home, but my own view of all the snow that I've been surrounded by my whole life. A lot of people will say that it's cold, harsh and unforgiving, but they also forget the beauty of it. So, while my Snow Magic originally started out as a symbol of my pride in my home, it also became a symbol of the beauty I see in the world, and as way to honor my father as well."

Pausing to take a breath from his lecture, he continued, "Magic isn't just some kind of tool. It's a part of your life and you have to live with it if you want to use it. I'd suggest finding out what's important to you as a person and letting it guide you. The more in tune with your magic your mindset is, the more potential for growth you have. After that, things should come a bit more naturally to you. Most of the time, your magic is aware of what you want. Not that it's sentient, but it reacts to your will and thoughts."

"I see." And I did see. Though Eve's explanation was long and a tad tedious, I got the gist of what he was saying. I'd been going about learning magic as I would a new Jutsu, treating each individual spell as just that -individual spells, unrelated to each other except very loosely,- but that wasn't true. There were families of spells, with each spell in a family connected to the rest of the spells in that branch of magic. If I wanted to learn, I had to find -or create- one that fit me as a person. I got the feeling that was what those books had meant by 'do what comes naturally.'

As I pondered, I looked up at the sky and noticed we'd been sitting here for the better part of an hour. Getting up, I turned to Eve and said a quick 'Thanks,' before heading off.

Just as I was about to leave the park, however, a thought occurred to me. Turning to Eve, I asked, "Hey, Eve! How about a game of poker tonight?"

* * *

_Forest Outside of Peony._

The forest here was full of pines. Though there were patches of several others kinds of tree, the majority were definitely pine. Combined with the snow on the ground, I was reminded of Snow Country.

I'd been out here for a couple hours, experimenting again. I was closer than before, I could tell, but nothing substantial had really happened. So far, I had tried the Rasengan, the Kage Bunshin and even Sage Mode. While it was better than before, Instead of the magic just dissipating, I could still only get a short burst of a bubble of magic for the Rasengan and the Clone Technique had barely formed the outline of a foot. Sage Mode had been a complete disaster.

I'd still been able to go through the motions of activating it, but no matter how much energy I gathered, it all left immediately after the moment I stopped gathering it. The worst part was that it left me feeling drained and I'd had to take several breaks to catch my breath. I wasn't going to attempt to use Kurama's chakra so close to the town, either.

Sitting against the back of one of the few oak trees, I contemplated what I was doing wrong. Eve had been right about magic responding to my thoughts and will. Before, I had tried to direct it as I had chakra, treating it like it was just another part of my body. That had only been half-right, while magic was still a part of me, it didn't respond in the same way a limb would. I had to subtly nudge it into place, to get it do what I wanted. But it was like something was impeding it, like a river being dammed.

I couldn't help but wonder how I had used magic before, one that wasn't even truly min. The memories of using it were there, but when I tried to concentrate on how I'd achieved it, things went fuzz. The thought made me sigh.

Maybe it had something to do with my mindset. I'd tried to start seeing all of my techniques as connected to each other, seeing all the similarities that I could in them, and while it had helped, it wasn't as much as I had hoped.

What was that other thing, Eve had suggested? Figuring out what was important to me and use it as a focus, or something like that. But that was easy wasn't it? My friends were what was important to me.

So should I use the thoughts of my friends, as a way to focus my mind? That didn't sound quite right to me, though.

One's magic was supposed to be a reflection, a symbol to that person. But what symbolized my friends? And if my magic was supposed to symbolize them, did it really reflect me, or them? Eve had given me a lot of clues, but also a lot of questions.

I knocked my head against the bark of tree, as I sat in the snow. My ass was getting wet, but I didn't care. Looking around at this snow covered forest, I came to a conclusion.

It was a nice forest. But it wasn't Konoha's. It wasn't the forest I had grown up near. It wasn't home.

Home.

A sick feeling twisted in my gut. I missed Home. It had only been a week, and I've been away for a lot longer than that before, but never like this. Not in some place so far away, that there was good chance I might not make it back. As much as I tried to deny it and push the thought away, it was true. The Elemental Nations and Konoha may forever be out of my grasp.

But no matter what, I at least had to try. And for that, I needed magic. I had known this, but before now, my conviction about it hadn't been my all. I'd figured that if I could just recreate my techniques, I'd be fine. It was becoming more and more clear, however, that that particular goal might need to be put down lower on my list of priorities.

So if I was going to do this, I needed to do it right. Eve had said his magic had symbolized his home, so why couldn't mine? Konoha was where I grew up and where many of my friends were, where I had first met them. It was where my dream to become a Hokage had come about. The more and more I thought about it, the more and more it seemed to fit.

I thought about the symbol of our village, the same one inscribed on my headband. Konoha was the Village Hidden in the Leaves and what was I right now, but a leaf in the wind?

Perhaps I had been aiming too high, for just starting out. The Rasengan and Kage Bunshin were both complicated techniques. Starting with something simpler might have been easier.

Standing up, I focused my thoughts using the symbol of my village. Crouching just a tad bit, I looked through the path in the trees. I started nudging my magic along, using the thoughts of home and what I wanted to accomplish and for once, it flowed smoothly.

And then I disappeared in swirl of leaves.

* * *

_World Notes:_

_Magical Circles: Something akin to a Rorschach Test for for mages. Books tend to fluff it up and make it out to be a harder process than it truly is. The Practice of Magical Circles simply consists of having an aspiring mage, or even a fully fledged on, draw out a stylized circle filled out in whatever way the mage wants. From here, there are two ways to go about things._

_The first is that the mage knowingly draws in certain things that he believe are related to or are important for the spell or magic the Magical Circle symbolizes. If it was fire magic, one might incorporate stylized flames, animals that have been said to represent flame like salamanders or other such things. They might also fill it with things that represent flame in the more abstract and that are much more personal. For example, if someone house was once burned down by a mob, they might include small short lines, one for each of the torches the mob had carried._

_The second, is to simply go by what feels right. Draw in what you think goes best in whatever place. And, once you're done, you look at certain parts of the circle and the circle as a whole try to figure out what it reminds you of. This second method is a bit more volatile and may take multiple attempts to create one that works. _

_Once either of these steps is finished and the mage has memorized the Circle, they can use it as a focus to cast a certain spell or brand of magic, depending on how one interpreted the circle._

_While this method is a tad easier, you may end up with using magic that is not as potent as if you had done it the hard way and examined yourself, to to find the right kind of magic for yourself._

* * *

_A/N: So, something I feel like I should say. If anyone is wondering, for purposes of power levels, I'm considering Mages and Shinobi about even._

_There's some monsters out there, in both universes. I'd have placed Hades at about Pein's/Nagato's level. Mostly because of the Demon's Heart, which is on the airship and makes Purehito pretty much invincible. (Which raises the question: Why did he let Naruto get away? Something for you all to ponder)_

_There's also been a couple questions as to pairing. Simply put, I ain't got no idea. Most likely, there'll be one, but I have no idea who Naruto'll end up with. At the very least, I can say it won't be a M/M pairing, because Naruto doesn't strike me as swinging that way._

_Last thing: Sometimes, at the end of chapters, there'll be a 'World Notes,' as a kind of extra for world building._


	3. The Traveler & The God

So, here's chapter 3. It's a small time skip and Naruto has started getting a hang of magic. We also see what's up with Kurama this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own or claim to own Naruto or Fairy Tail

* * *

Chapter 3

The Traveler & The God

_Peony Town, The Frozen Bud Bar, April 22_

"My win again, fellas!"

There was a collective groan from the men arranged around the table, as I collected my winnings. It wasn't as much as I could have won, but I still hadn't lost more than I had gained. Of course, the important thing here was that I had lost. I'd learned my lesson from the Jonin Poker Games.

I thought it was a tad sad that I apparently had to cheat to make sure I lost, though. It would be suspicious if all I ever did was win and fold, so I had taken to using sleight of hand to ensure I lost some hands every now and then. After all, I had finally been able to start playing poker with other people again. There was no reason to risk it.

And if it proved to be lucrative, well that was just a plus.

Having collected my money, I threw back the rest of my drink, the burn of the alcohol feeling pleasant as it travelled down my gullet. The alcohol in this world was quite varied and though there was apparently an equivalent to Sake, I had gone for something with more of a kick to it. Not that I was much of a drinker, but I could hold my own and in place like this, it was almost mandatory.

With that done, I pushed my chair back and stood up. I said a quick goodbye to my poker buddies, the waitress and the bartender, all of whom I had gotten to know in the last few months and stepped out into town.

Spring had come to the are and though it was still pretty cold, it was much more bearable than in the winter. Almost all of the snow had melted, leaving the cobbled street visible and other parts of the town a bit muddy. All in all, it was much comfier than when I had first arrived.

I took a moment to contemplate simply using the shunshin to arrive at my destination, but ultimately decided to take my time. There was no need to rush.

After all, earlier today, I had decided it was time for me to leave.

It had been a pleasant few months and Eve had come to be a good friend, almost akin to a brother, but...I was starting to feel cramped. When I had first gotten here, I had thought the town closed off and it was true. My days here were peaceful and quiet for the most part.

But I had things to accomplish. I needed to at least try and find a way home and that couldn't happen if I stayed in one place for the rest of my days. As much as I'd like them to be, the answers were not going to be found in Peony's Library.

So I needed to go out in the world. I'd decided on a general plan of action while playing poker in the bar. First, I'd head Southwest, over the mountains. I wasn't going to travel the whole range, just the few that were in between Peony and the large river that ended to the Southwest. From there, I'd travel from place to place, simply going in whatever direction seemed best, looking for clues as to figuring out how to get back to my world. There was also that Dark Guild, Grimoire Heart, to find. I only remembered a few things about them, but they were the ones that brought me here.

If I could find them and any of them could get me back home, I just might consider not reducing them to bloody smears on the ground.

However, if, in a year's time, I still hadn't found anything, I'd join a guild. At the very least, a collection of so many mages should be able to give me some kind of hint to finding a way home. They might also be able to get me more information on Grimoire Heart.

But that was my fallback option. Being in a guild meant being confined and while it would give me a source of income, it'd also keep me tied down to one area. Most guilds tended to have a 'sphere of influence,' in which most of their missions came from and, bar some of the more dangerous quests, that's where I'd be operating.

And that brought me to my next train of thought.

Ever since my success with with recreating the Shunshin, my attempts at experimenting with with magic had gone a lot smoother. I'd still yet to be able to recreate another of my techniques, but I had found -or rather started to create- my own brand of magic. The first time I had used it, I hadn't noticed, but the Shunshin had created a bunch of leaves when I had activated it. At first, I had dismissed it, because that was what usually happened, the technique picking up various debris on activation and when landing at your destination. However, as I used it again, I had noticed the leaves forming from thin air.

My magic had created the leaves in accordance to my memory of the technique and after a while, they'd disappear. Needless to say, learning that I could create leaves like that had given me some ideas.

To my dismay, my attempts at making ramen from magic had not worked out.

Still, there was potential there and I'd practiced the magical Shunshin quite a few times in an attempt to figure out exactly what I was doing. After a week or so, I'd been able to start producing leaves at will. I'd tried to do the same with other things, like sand and water, but it was like there was some kind of block in my mind that kept me from doing it. In the end, I'd chalked it up to having to do with my mindset, like Eve had said.

Once I'd achieved that, I'd started experimenting and training in full. Several times a week, I'd visit the library and check out some books on magic I found interesting, to look for ideas. The rest of the time, I was training.

Though I did also put some time aside for breaks. I'd walk around town and explore and meet various people, or I'd go to the bar and play a game of poker. And at night, I'd hang out with Eve, though sometimes he'd join me out in the woods to train as well.

Eve had really started taking that Rune Knight thing seriously. The boy was good, too, and if you didn't have to be 16 to sign up for the basic training, he'd probably be able to join now. Sure, he hadn't been able to beat me any of the times we sparred, but that was more to do with my abundance of experience compared to his lack of it. That was pretty much all he needed to become a competent fighter and I knew he'd be great one day.

Thinking about my friend, my hand went to one of the pockets in the large cloak I was wearing, palming the 'going away gift,' I had prepared. The cloak itself was a heavier copy of the one the Toads had made for me. I'd had it and several other made after I had paid Eve back and gotten some money through poker, because I had been unable to bring the original with me when I was brought to this place.

Though it was thicker and heavier than the original, it wasn't stifling, but that was partly due to the experimental Seals I had lined it with. That was another thing I had been working on. Since Fuuinjutsu was just a way to manipulate energy and I knew that it should theoretically be possible from the end of my fight with Hades, I had gone about trying to adapt some seals to work with magic instead of chakra.

I winced at the memories that came to mind. It had definitely taken some doing, but I had finally started to make some progress recently. Which was good, because I was tired of nearly having my head blown off. Still, it was slow going, because it was like trying to add a new character to a written language and you didn't even entirely know what that character actually meant.

At least progress was progress. My hope was to be able to start making actual Sealing Scrolls, for objects and equipment. It would make carrying a bunch of stuff a lot easier.

As it was, I'd probably have to make do with a backpack.

My stride paused for a second, as I stopped, waiting for something. A beat later, and I shrugged, continuing on. Usually, Kurama would have piped in with a disparaging remark at my expense. It was unusual for him to give up a chance like that. Especially with how he had been acting, lately.

Ever since we got here, Kurama was getting increasingly more irritable. More irritable than usual anyway. He was liable to snap out more and more insults as the days passed by and was less and less interested in actual conversation. I was curious as to why and also a tad worried. Kurama was my friend after all. If something was bothering him, I wanted to know what it was, so I could help.

Maybe it was because Kurama was feeling cooped up? Since I had yet to be able to recreate the Kage Bunshin, or a magical technique that would serve the same function, Kurama was unable to take one over to roam around. He could have used my actual body, but when Kurama's consciousness was in control of it, it took on some pretty feral looking aspects. It would probably frighten the townspeople, even if they thought it was simply some kind of magic.

Unlike Konoha, who had tentatively gotten used to the Kyuubi walking around wearing my body or one of my clones, this place didn't have the same experience. They hadn't had their entire village destroyed by him either, so there wouldn't be as much fear or hate towards Kurama, but I wasn't willing to risk it. Even back home, Kurama had still been…less than pleasant to most people that weren't me.

Not that he was always pleasant to me either, but at least we could hold decent conversations most of the time.

Thinking about the problem, I decided I'd let Kurama take over for a bit, once I was on on the road and away from town. Since I was going through the mountains, instead of around them, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Perhaps I could even try and use Bijuu Mode when out there as well. I'd be far enough away from anybody that might be able to sense it, as long as I didn't go overboard.

Turning inward, I gave said fox in question a few mental pokes.

_Did you hear that, Bastard-Fox? I'm letting you take control once we're far enough out of town._

There was a deep, rumbling growl that I had long since grown accustomed to hearing, as the fox responded, **Do as you wish. Knowing you, you're just too lazy to hike up the mountains and want me to do it for you.**

My hands clenched and my eye twitched as I had to bite the inside of my mouth so as to not retort to him out loud. I try to do something nice and this is how he responds.

Truly, Kurama was a Bastard-Fox.

Unclenching my hands, I threw them behind my neck and stretched as I walked. There was no reason to pay him any mind right now and so I relaxed, looking up at the sky. I'd long since mapped every part of the town in my head and I was aware enough to use my other senses to avoid crashing into the few people up and about as I walked. This place was quite nice and I'd made some good acquaintances and a good friend, but it was time for me to move on.

There was much to do, after all.

* * *

_Later_

I'd stopped to buy a large backpack, one that was made for camping and hiking. It was able to handle large weight and was a bit more resistant to regular wear and tear. A few pots and pans and some water purification tablets were also acquired. After that, I restocked on ink and paper, since I had no idea how long it would take to cross the mountains.

Leaving the store, I headed off to Eve's place. He had been nice enough to let me live with him for the last four months and I'd been given one of the many bedrooms in the house to sleep in. We hadn't had another talk about his parents since that day he gave me advice on magic, but I could tell his family must have been well off. Not only was the big stone house a clue, but money never seemed to be much of a problem for the boy, despite not having a job. Eve also had a tendency to wear fine and expensive clothing, despite the simple look he tended to favor.

The thought made me consider my own apparel. Once he realized I only had one pair of clothes, he had absolutely insisted I buy myself more. Since this was before I'd started to playing poker at the bar, it had been on his money that I'd bought myself new clothes. It was even worse, since he had brought me to the same store he bought his own from. Needless to say, it had been expensive and I'd left feeling guilty at all the money I'd spent, though Eve had waved it off.

At least I had managed to pay him back.

Anyway, the result was a few new shirts and pants. They were mostly dark colors, like blue, black or brown, with a few soft greens. The shirts were all long-sleeved and a bit thick, but still wearable in warmer climates. I'd made sure the pants had as many pockets as possible and did not restrict movement. In the end, the only ones that met the criteria were quite baggy and I'd had to use bandages to tighten them over my shins.

Additionally, I'd secured a length of black cloth, which was currently tied around my left arm. In thick orange stitching, that I'd taken the time to make, was an Uzumaki spiral. I'd also conceded that my regular shinobi footwear might not be up for the cold climate, or mountain hiking, so I had bought a pair of boots as well. My Jonin Flak Vest was also currently covered by my black and red cloak.

All in all, I was pretty well dressed for most climates, especially ever since I had figured out those temperature seals. As a plus, they were all pretty comfy too. It was easy to see why they were so expensive.

Turning my attention back to the street, I saw that I was coming upon my destination. With a grin, I slung the backpack I'd been lugging around over my shoulder and used the Shunshin to appear at the foot of the stairs. Not bothering with the leaves that I had created, as they'd just fade away in a few minutes, I walked up to the door and went inside.

The inside of Eve's house was comfy. When you came in through the front door, you'd end up in a small alcove, that then opened up to the kitchen. From there, there was a counter separating the kitchen from the living room. At the back of the kitchen was another alcove that led to the stairs to the second floor. In the living room, on the the same side of the house as the stairs, was a hallway that had several doors to various rooms.

Though none of the lamps were on, at night they'd give the place a homely atmosphere and highlight some the different paintings on the wall. It was from the paintings that I had gleaned the fact that Eve's mother had most likely been a painter, due to the initials in the corner of each painting.

Walking into the living room, I found my friend sitting on the couch, hunched over the table studying a book on the Rune Magic. Since Eve had started taking his thoughts on becoming a Rune Knight seriously, I had suggested that though he still had to wait a couple years to sign up, there was no reason to not get a head start on the things he'd be learning anyway. The library was full of books on Rune Magic, thanks to the local outpost for Rune Knights.

Looking up at the sound of someone coming in, Eve saw me and gave me smile in greeting. "Ah, Naruto! Are you not training today?" He looked at me in curiosity, but I saw his eyes move to where I had the backpack slung over my shoulder.

I gave him a hum of agreement, and said, "No, I have something else to do today." Taking a breath, I steadied myself. This was the hard part, and I looked Eve in the eye as told him, "I've decided that It was time I move on. There are things I need to do and I can't do them If I stay here."

Of course, as the pleasant individual that he was, Eve just smiled. It was a bit sad that I was going away, as I had quickly come to realize that I was his only real friend. Sure, he had his various girlfriends throughout the months I had known him, but they never actually lasted long. To be honest, I was surprised there were still women left for him to date.

"I figured you'd be leaving eventually. You never did explain why you were so injured when we first met, but I assumed you were a traveller of some kind. Actually, I was kind of surprised you stayed this long."

Scratching my cheek with my free hand, I chuckled. That was just like Eve, being all around pleasant and polite at all times. He was even like that when we were sparring, though to a much lesser degree. Kind of reminded me of myself, though a lot quieter than I had been. And more polite. And better with women.

"Ah, I guess you could say that. I do tend to travel a lot." Which was true. I had gone all over the place back in Konoha and I had even spent a few years doing nothing but traveling with Jiraiya. Even after the war, I'd spent a considerable amount of my time outside of the village, though I always came back. Maybe I had developed what Jiraiya would have called 'wanderlust,' over the years?

Turning back to my friend, I cleared my throat as I began, "I also wanted to say thank you, for letting me live here and being a good friend. As such, I put something together for you."

"Eh?! You didn't have to do that, I don't need anything for helping someone out!" He said this as he held his arms out, waving his hands as if to signal to me to stop.

Ignoring him, I set down the backpack down on the floor and reached into the pocket of my coat where I had put the gift. What I pulled out, was a book. To someone from my world, it would be a very familiar book, recognizable at nothing but a glance to its orange cover. On the front, it depicted a man chasing a woman and on the back was a large, red crossed-out circle.

It was obviously the first book of the Icha Icha series. I'd been working on translating it to the local language for awhile now, planning it as just a general thank you gift and as a bit of a prank. I'd finished a week ago.

Handing the book over to Eve, who took it with curiosity, I grinned and said, "This book shall teach you much. I hope that it helps you in one of the most important matters of life.

"It was written by my Sensei, you know, and that's the only translated copy. So take care of it, because it's one of a kind!"

As Eve opened the book and began to read, I watched as he started to blush and stutter as he fumbled with the book in his hands. He was probably surprised at learning exactly what kind of book it was.

Chuckling, I left to go pack in my room before he could try and give the book back. Walking up the stairs to the second floor, I could see from the corner of my eye that Eve had foregone his book on Rune Magic and was blushing while reading the book I had given him. That simply made me chuckle more, as I turned to the door that led to what had become 'My Room.'

In comparison to my apartment back home, this place was spotless. It was sparsely decorated, with only a bed and a small desk beside it with a lamp on top. There was a painting of the nearby mountains on the wall, presumably done by Eve's mother. Along the wooden floor were some clothes and that was about it.

Still, I started to pack what little I owned in this universe. Slowly, the bag began to fill up with clothes, a toothbrush I had bought and various other things. I also put in a pack of cards, some dice and a cup.

After that, pulled out my pouch of kunai and filled it with some throwing knives I had purchased a couple months ago when I had found the town's blacksmith. They weren't kunai, but I could throw them easily enough. There were also two daggers I had bought in addition to the knives, which I could use for close up if I ran out of kunai.

Finally, I pulled out a large scroll. It was almost as big as the summoning scroll the Toads had made so I could summon clones from Mt. Myoboku. Unlike that one, however, this one was full of various tags with just as many seals on them. Some were explosive tags, some of them were perimeter tags and some were paralyzing tags and many more. I'd made this so that I wouldn't have to stop in the middle of a battle to write out a seal, like I'd had to do with Tall, Dark and Wrinkly.

Putting on the backpack, and then the scroll, I was finally ready to leave.

* * *

_Path to Giardino Mountains_

Though most people preferred to go around them, there was still a road leading from the town to the base of the mountains. There was supposed to be a few pathways through the snow-and-forest covered peaks, but they hadn't been used in so long, that they'd probably been overgrown.

Ah well, not that it mattered to me, too much. I'd left the town in a Shunshin and then started off in a run towards the large mounds, but halfway there I had decided to slow down. I had been going at a mild, but leisurely pace, at least for me, and it took me a few hours after that to get to the base. But now I was here, looking up at a steep incline.

To my dismay, I had yet to be able to figure out if it was possible for me to stick to walls with my magic like I had been able to do with chakra. That meant that I had to do this the old fashioned way.

Well, not too old fashioned. Pouring magic into my legs, I started jumping up the mountain in leaps augmented by magic. There were trees around, so I hopped up into one and started traveling by branch. Unlike the forest at the base, there were a lot more trees than simply pine, giving me many branches to hop to.

I could have used the Shunshin, but, even as a relatively low cost technique, I wanted to save my energy as much as I could. Before leaving, I'd made sure to read up on the mountains and they were apparently full of dangerous wildlife. Things like Wyvern and Blizzardvern and Mountain Vulcans. There were apparently even Dire Wolves and Snow Weretigers on some of the other mountains. Thankfully, if I kept on course, I wouldn't go anywhere near those peaks.

That was how things went for the next few hours. Just me, peacefully hopping from tree to tree, occasionally having to travel by ground due to a lack of sufficiently strong branches. Trees passed by in a blur and I found myself to be wonderfully content. I'd even started humming.

Soon, I could feel the temperature and the amount of oxygen in the air dropping, as I rose higher and higher and night started to fall. Still, I planned to keep going. I wasn't tired yet and I was used to working at night. Though I'd make sure to get some some sleep, I wanted to get as far as I could.

The sooner I got off the mountains, the better.

It was when I had finally gotten about halfway up the mountain when the surroundings stated to become snow and ice. The moon was also out, and I could see a few clouds in the sky. I'd had to slow down, due to the ice and the increasingly sparse foliage. There were very few trees at this point.

Thankfully, the seals in my clothes were working. I had yet to actually test them, out here in the wildness like this, but they seemed fine so far.

Suddenly, my senses alerted me to something incoming and I dodged. Rolling through the snow, I saw the projectile that had gone past me fly into, and smash against, a nearby boulder. It looked like it had been…a snow ball?

At that moment, the back of my head was impacted by another ball of snow and I heard huffing hoots of laughter. Turning around, I saw the culprit rolling around and pointing at me. It was a large, primate like creature, with an elongated chin and pointed ears. The creature's head was pointed, like the tip of a cone. Black-spotted white fur covered it's giant arms and large fists, that were attached to a muscular torso. Compared to the upper-body, its much smaller legs were covered in black scales. From its back, sprouted a black furred tail.

As it rolled on the ground hooting and pointing at me to several more of its kind, the Vulcan called out between laughs, "S-stupid, Ugly Human not dodge snow. Stupid, Ugly Human slow!" From there it just kept rolling and snorting around in laughter. Its friends were doing the same.

I could feel my eye twitching. Growling, I scooped up some snow from the ground, formed it into a ball and let loose at the group of Mountain Vulcan's. To my satisfaction, I nailed the the one who had got me earlier right in the mouth.

This time, it was me who was laughing as I pointed at the Vulcan. Before I could stop myself, I gloated, "Hah! Who's stupid and ugly now, you damn monkeys!"

The Vulcan wiped the snow from its face as it glared at me. Grunting to its friends, they all started snickering as they started gathering snow.

My eyes widened at this and I paled. Quickly, I went about gathering as much snow as I could and started forming them into ball. By the time the first few Vulcans had started pelting snowballs at me, I only had a small pile. To my surprise, the Vulcan's were actually quite accurate and could throw pretty fast too. I did my best to dodge, but I still got pelted every now and then when trying to return fire.

Things pretty much devolved from there. All of my snowballs hit, but I couldn't throw as many as they could and they had numbers on their side. It was turning into a full-blown snow war, as insults were thrown and the power in each throw started getting stronger and stronger.

The war was getting so intense, I was all out hurling balls of ice cold snow at them and they were doing the same. Soon, I started getting a tempo going and more and more snowballs missed as I acclimated to the speed of their throws. Of course, Vulcans don't really know the meaning of the term 'holding back,' and I think they were getting frustrated.

At this point though, I didn't care. I was having fun and even as they stopped throwing snow and started using more dangerous things like rocks, I didn't stop. Instead, I just acclimated once more to situation. If they wanted an all out fight, they'd get one.

As the others tried to pelt me with rocks, one of them took the initiative and leaped at me, it's giant arms raised in preparation for a hammer blow. Smirking, I simply rolled under it when it was still in the air and came up with a spinning kick to its back that sent it tumbling into a mound of snow. It seemed the others had realized projectiles weren't working, as they had all stopped.

There were eight of them in total, including the one who had just finally freed its head from the snow mound. They were letting out various grunts as they circled me. For my part, I just stood by lazily, watching them out of the corners of my eyes. One to my left crouched and rushed at me with a fist raised, while another came at me with another leaping attack.

I turned to the one rushing me and ducked under its fist. As It reared back its arm, my own snaked out and grabbed it under its shoulder. Using the arm I now had a hold on, I flooded my arms with magic and used it's own momentum to lift it into the air and flying into the leaping Vulcan. They crashed into each other and went flying away, a bit down the mountain. Most likely, they'd be back in a minute or two, which was plenty enough time to have fun with the rest of them.

While all of that happened, another Vulcan at my back charged at me, aiming to gore me with it's pointed head. Instead, I turned and kicked it in its face hard enough to lift it off the ground. As it started to come back down, I used my still enhanced arm to punch it in the face this time, sending it toppling backwards. I grinned at the dazed look in it's eyes, as it woozily stared at everything around it.

That was three down, five to go.

Not waiting for them to attack again, I went on the offensive. Shunshin-ing in front of one of the closer Vulcans, I pressed my my palm to its chest. Activating a bit of magic I had created when experimenting with some principles of wind magic, I said, "**Leaf Pulse!**" From beneath my palm, there was a flash of green light and then the Vulcan was shot away in a burst of leaves. When it landed, I could see the flesh where I had used my magic was shredded and torn in area the slightly larger than my hand.

Of course, that was what the Leaf Pulse did. Using some of the principles of general Wind Magic, which, much like the Wind Element of my world, cut and shred, I had been able to use my magic to not only make the leaves my magic created stronger, but also sharper. The result was a technique that created a burst of razor-like leaves that tore and shredded the target. It had been my first successful original bit of magic and had given me more ideas to follow up on.

I'm not sure if it was my former experience with the Wind Element or what, but I had found it extraordinarily easy to give my leaves the same kind of properties as a wind attack.

Spinning, I reached into my pouch for two tags. Taking one in each hand, I slapped them on to the two nearest Vulcan's heads and they both stopped moving, their eyes glazed over. Those were some paralyzing tags, which would keep them from moving as I used another spell.

Moving behind them, I held out my hands, my fingers splayed and my palms facing the vulcans. "**Leaf Tomb!**" A veritable storm of leaves formed in front my hands, and sped towards the two unmoving vulcans. The leaves wrapped around their forms, until they were completely covered from head to toe in layers of leaves.

My Leaf Tomb spell, despite its name, did not actually have to kill. It just encased the target in leaves that restricted movement and also sapped their energy at the same time. The downside, was that it took awhile for all of the leaves to encase the target and if the target was moving, they could break out fairly easily. So for now, I had to simply use it on opponents who were standing still, or do what I did here and use the paralyzation tags.

_Only two left._

Shunshin-ing once more to close the distance, I had to avoid a swing at my head by one of the Vulcans. They'd seen me use it just before and knew what to expect, so I had to dodge back a little. As that happened though, the other one tackled me from behind and I was actually thrown through the air into a snow bank. Landing on my back, I saw that the Vulcans had wasted no time and both had their fists raised over me and were about smash my body into a pulp.

Widening my eyes, I reflexively crossed my arms in a block as I called out "**Leaf Wall!**" A multitude of leaves exploded into existence and quickly started laying themselves on top of each other in layers, forming something like a half-dome over my body. It cut off my view of the Vulcans, but I was able to sense it when their large fists smashed into the wall of leaves and resounded with a loud 'Gong!'

Using the already created leaves to my advantage, I focused on the magic they were made of, and directed them outwards. At the same time, I tweaked some the qualities these leaves had, having made them as hard as I could to serve as a defense, I now made them into the kind of leaves I used for my Leaf Pulse. The result was my shield of leaves exploding outwards in a flurry, cutting into the flesh of the Vulcans and making them howl in pain.

Leaping up, I used the moment to punch them both in the face, knocking them out.

Hearing the crunching of snow and loud snorts and breathing, I looked behind me. Sure enough, there were the two Vulcans I'd sent flying right the beginning of the fight. And it looked liked they'd grabbed some toys on their way back up.

Both Vulcan's were carrying large branches in each hand, giving them two clubs each. They must have broken them off of some trees, because the splintered ends of each branch looked fresh. The sight made me grimace.

I could probably avoid them well enough, but it'd be hard to get in close to attack. If I got hit, I might be able to cushion the blow by using magic to reinforce my body, but something would surely get cracked _at the least. _Most likely, any bones they'd hit would end up broken, even with magic. Nor could I defend with a kunai or a dagger, they'd either snap like a twig or get stuck in the wood.

Cursing, I jumped back as they came at me. Their swings were wild, but predictable and easy to dodge. Still, they were fast, and I could hear the whooshing of the wind they caused as they were swung. As I ducked and swerved and rolled out of the way, I was getting more and more frustrated. I could try the same thing I had done to the last two Vulcans, but that would only work on one, while the other would take the chance to break my body like glass.

Feeling something wet hit my nose, I blinked and took a moment to look up.

_Great_, I thought sarcastically, _now it's snowing._

Continuing on with the fight, I tried closing in a few times, but like I had expected, I had to back off before I could get close enough to attack. Frowning, I jumped back a bit further, watching as one of the Vulcans missed with their swing. As the wind whooshed like before, snow got caught in it's wake, swirling about in circles.

I couldn't help but think of the Rasengan. If I could just use that, I'd be able to take out the damn monkeys easily. The Rasengan would tear those clubs to pieces. But I couldn't use it, because I hadn't figured out how to use it with magic yet.

The thought just made my frustration grow even worse.

Why was I unable to recreate it, when I had been able to do so with the Shunshin? Was it simply because I couldn't incorporate leaves into it? Or was the thought of my Home not enough, like it had been for for the Shunshin? The Rasengan was just as much a part of my home as leaves were, though! I'd even learned it by putting the symbol of Konoha on my palm!

But then, was the Rasengan really something I connected to my home? Eve had said magic had to do with mindsets and I thought I had learned that, but if I had, why was I having so much trouble?

So then, if using the thoughts of my Home and friends weren't right for the Rasengan, then maybe the question I should be asking was, 'What does the Rasengan symbolize to me?' And even though I didn't want to believe it was that simple, it made a bit of sense. The Rasengan...it was taught to me by Jiraiya and it had been created by my Father. It was full of spirals and was much like my namesake, a Maelstrom. I'd used it to win that bet with Tsunade and had gotten the necklace that I wore to this day. When Sasuke had first left, it was what I had used to try and bring him back. Almost every opponent I faced after that, I had beaten with the Rasengan.

If leaves were my Home, then the Rasengan symbolized my Family. And if my Home and Friends were what I wanted to protect, it was the people who I considered my Family that gave me the power to do it.

With all that in mind, as the Vulcans came at me once more, I held my arm out to my side and concentrated in a different way than normal. I could feel the magic swirling my palm, going faster and faster and getting stronger. When it was finally visible, there was hum in the air as the Rasengan formed.

Smirking, I met the Vulcan's swing head on, and the Rasengan chewed through the clubs like they weren't even there. Using my free hand, I decked the now defenceless Vulcan in the face, toppling it over even as I turned to the next.

This Vulca didn't give up and raised both clubs up into the air. As they same swing down, I used the still active Rasengan to tear apart both clubs at once and continued on. Slamming the technique turned spell into the creatures gut, he was blasted back, tumbling down the mountain head over heels. This time, I got the feeling he wouldn't be getting back up.

Looking over at all of my fallen opponents, I couldn't help but grin. I'd finally done it.

The Rasengan was within my grasp once more.

* * *

_Further up the Mountain, several hours later._

I'd found a cave higher up on the mountain, where I'd decided to set camp for the night. It was a bit iced over near the front, but it was dry enough in the back. Making a fire had been easy, since I had snagged the splintered wood from the branches the Vulcans had used as clubs.

So, here I was, in the back of a cave, sitting by a fire and cooking some soup. I still hadn't found any ramen in this world yet and I was fearful I never would. But I wouldn't give up hope. There had to be ramen somewhere in this world, for no god and or gods could be so cruel as to deprive humanity of such deliciousness.

Anyways, after the fight, I'd been a bit exhausted, but still awake enough to go on. When I found this cave, I'd been about ready to just fall on the ground and sleep. Crawling into the dark cave, I had set down the sleeping bag I had packed, took out the wood and made a fire using the flint I had.

While the soup cooked, I'd taken to experimenting with magic again. I'd found that I still couldn't create a Kage Bunshin, but had gotten a weird hazy, see-through version of myself for a second. But it definitely wasn't a regular clone, because I had been able to see through its eyes and my own at the same time. Sage Mode was still acting wonky, too.

I'd also found that I could only use my Leaf Magic or my Rasengan singularly, and not both at once. As far as I could figure, it probably had to do with not being able to think in two mindsets at once. Though I was just glad I had finally made more progress on recreating my techniques.

Leaning up against the wall, I closed my eyes. I could probably just eat and head to sleep, but now that I was far away from town, I could try and see what was up with Bijuu Mode. At this point, I didn't expect it to work, as none of my other techniques had. Then again, Bijuu Mode wasn't reliant on just me, so who knows.

I was about ready to nod off, but forced myself to open my eyes. Checking the soup, I decided it was ready to be eaten. Taking the pot, I set it on the ground to cool and started using a wooden spoon to eat. The soup was warm as it travelled down my throat, and it tasted good enough. After I was finished, I took the pot out of the cave and used it to scoop up some snow.

Bringing it inside, I set it over the fire once more. Watching as the snow inside the pot melted, I figured now was as good time as any.

Sitting a bit straighter, I crossed my legs and sat in a meditative position. It wasn't necessary, but In the last few years, I'd come to find it was relaxing and let me feel out my internal energies better. Closing my eyes, I gently nudged Kurama.

Which is to say, I mentally shouted at him.

_Oy, Bastard-Fox! Gimme some chakra, will ya?_

All I got in response was a grunt from the irritable Fox. However, a moment later, and I could feel energy burbling to the front of my mind and then into my body. For that moment, things seemed to be going normally.

Then, it reached my chest. I felt like something was being slammed into my chest, and that something was on _fire. _The heat got worse and then started _spreading_, like molten metal in my veins. My pathways that had once been used for chakra, but now carried magic, felt like they were going burst!

It was as if there wasn't enough space and what I knew as Kurama's energy, -energy, because at this point it sure as fuck wasn't _chakra, _I could tell that much- was getting chaotic. If my pathways were pipes and my magic was fresh water, then Kurama's energy was like sea water and as it traveled, it churned and twisted, as if trying to break free from the pipes.

The pain was so immense I didn't even have the presence of mind to tell Kurama to stop. I'd moved to my hands and knees and was gurgling in pain, my eyes screwed shut. As it continued, the pain in my chest got worse and worse, like a balloon being pumped too full of and was about to pop. Flopping to my back, I opened my eyes, but I couldn't see. My vision was too full of spots and I let out a strangled scream of agony.

As my eyes rolled back into my head, and I started to fall into unconsciousness, I dimly heard the voice of Kurama.

**Foolish brat, do I have to do everything myself?**

And then I knew no more.

* * *

_In the Cave, moments later._

When he was finally able to stop Naruto's -his- body from twitching, he sat up. If someone who knew the blond had seen him at the moment, they'd be able to tell something was off right away.

As he cricked his neck, he opened his eyes, revealing not the regular sapphire blue, but instead a crimson red. The whiskers on his cheeks were deeper and darker and as he opened his mouth and licked a tongue over his teeth, one could tell they were much larger and sharper than before. It was clear that there was something wrong.

This was not Naruto Uzumaki, though it was his body. This was the Nine-Tailed 'Demon' Fox, Kurama.

Stretching his body some more, he grunted. It was always a strange sensation, taking control of a body not his own. Though in the past couple years, he had been growing accustomed to the feel of a human form, having been able to use Naruto's clones or his original body. _Their_ original body.

Despite how much the brat insisted otherwise, he knew Naruto had been thinking in terms of 'Us' and 'We' and 'Our.' Even if it was only subconsciously, Naruto's thoughts and feelings could not be hidden from him, not if he truly wished to know them. For his part, Kurama was slowly starting to think the same way. Though he hated to admit it, he was growing fond of the young ninja. He even played nice with the brat's friends.

Standing up, he grimaced. He had not expected that to happen to Naruto, when he had given him his energy. A growl that should not be able to come from a human throat echoed throughout the cave, as he thought of the reason why.

This world was different than their own. Not just in the energy they used, or its culture or any myriad of other things. No, it was a more fundamental aspect of this world. The air here was...different. Filled with something. The same was true for the ground. He could feel a massive amount of built up energy beneath layers upon layers of earth.

Kurama had theorized, on his own, that whatever was in the air here was also responsible for the thing these people called 'magic.' As Naruto's chakra system was...twisted into what it was now, some of the energy had leaked into the seal. That was normal, as it had happened with his regular chakra too, but this was...different.

The Bijuu's body was made from pure chakra. Though it felt like real flesh and fur and bone, it was not. The Sage of Six Paths' power had been beyond that of anyone, then or now, and even though Naruto showed promise, he still had a long way to go. Hagoromo had used chakra to create him and so that is what he was. Chakra.

A giant mass of energy.

But the new energy in this world corrupts. Maybe benignly, but corruption was corruption. The energy that had leaked through the seal had been interacting with him. Corrupting him. Changing him.

No longer was he mass of chakra, but instead one of magic. And magic was much more fluid than chakra, more fleeting. It took most of his presence of mind just to keep his form solid within the open cage. That he had to fight, just so as to not turn into a formless cloud of magic, was infuriating!

And it seemed as if it took more for two people to share their magic, than it did chakra as well. Just another new rule that they had needed to figure out. Thankfully, he was able to leave all of his power back in the seal when he was in control of the body, or he'd be in the same state Naruto had been. He'd have been able to deal with the pain better, of course, but that wasn't the point.

At least at the momen he didn't have to concentrate on keeping his form. He'd have to start asking Naruto let him take control more often or he was sure he'd go insane.

Walking over to the fire, he supposed he should get comfortable. Though his mind wasn't tired, his body had just gone through an ordeal, not to mention all the walking, running and hopping Naruto had done when he was in control. It needed some time to rest and recuperate. Kurama doubted the brat would even wake up for a couple days.

He had been able to sense how much pain Naruto had been in and the only thing worse they had ever felt was getting thrown into this world.

So, the fox in a man's body simply sat there and watched the fire slowly die out. When that was nothing but embers, he turned his attention to outside of the cave. The fox had plenty of experience with waiting and staring out at nothing. Besides, time was different for him. It passed by quickly, when he was not paying attention and it would return to normal when he decided to tune back into the world.

Through the darkness, his inhuman eyes were able to watch as a snowstorm raged on outside. He kept track of it and it continued on through the night. Even when night started to fade and the sun came out, it was still dark due to the clouds and the snow.

But he had waited long enough for this body to recover and so he got up. Making sure to collect the pot and the spoon, he put them away, though he drank some of water that had been boiled during the night. After getting everything ready, he put the backpack on and walked out into the storm.

Once outside of the cave, he put a hand over his eyes as he looked around. He could make out the other mountains on either side, through the snowfall.

Humming in contemplation and crossing his arms, he asked himself, "Now which way were we going again?"

Looking left and right, he eventually nodded and took off to the mountains on the left. If he had bothered to use a compass, he'd have also known them to be to the East.

In other words, the complete opposite of his destination.

That didn't particularly matter to the fox, so assured in his decision, was he. Running down the mountain, he'd hop down further from time to time to speed up his descent. At one point, he came to ledge and simply didn't bother to even stop, just leaping right off. As he approached the ground, he poured magic into all the right spots in his body and landed with a thundering crash and a crouch.

Unlike Naruto, Kurama was aware of every aspect of this body, inside and out. Not only had it been healed enough times from his chakra over the years, but the unique circumstance of this not originally being his own body gave him a kind of awareness of it, in the beginning. Though it had started to fade into something he was becoming used to, he was still more aware of it than Naruto himself and so was able to augment the body to a much higher degree, using less magic.

As he was about to take off running once more, he heard a screeching sound and the flapping of large wings. Turning, Kurama was able to see two large Blizzardvern swooping down on him.

Blizzardverns, also known as White Wyvern, were large, reptilian beasts that were covered in scales and mostly white in color. Attached to their large, muscular arms and clawed hands, were webbed wings, almost akin to a bat. Their legs were hunched and muscular and spikes coming out of the knees. They had three, black, jagged spikes running up each calf and black talons on their feet, with another talon coming out the back. Atop their heads and running down their backs all the way to the base of their tails were more black spikes. Lastly, they had draconian like heads, filled with sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

Grinning maliciously, Kurama got ready for a fight. As they came diving at him, he raised a hand, using one of the spells he had watched Naruto create.

"**Leaf Shot!**"

Around his held up hand, leaves started appearing and the shooting off just as fast. They were like daggers as they sped through the air, aimed at one of Blizzardvern. Even as it swooped out of way, he kept up the spell, the barrage of dagger-like leaves following the White Wyvern as it tried to dodge. He didn't stop until he was forced to, as the other Blizardvern closed in and tried to take his head off.

Rolling out of the way, he faced the one that had just attacked him and tried a different spell. "**Leaf Storm!**" Once more, leaves started to appear, but this time in much greater numbers. It was as if someone had taken the leaves from several trees, got them all in a pile, and then dumped the pile from above around Kurama. They floated in the air lazily for a moment, but then started swirling forward, picking up speed until they chasing the Blizzardvern.

He watched as the mass of leaves surrounded the giant flying reptile, cutting its hide and tearing up it's flesh. The spell was basically a bigger version of Naruto's Leaf Pulse, that he had adapted for his purposes on the spot. That was another difference between him and Naruto.

Kurama was simply smarter. He understood things better and was much quicker to be able to see the connections in things. When Eve had explained how magic had worked to Naruto, he had paid attention. In addition, his experience with having to keep his body from simply turning into mist gave him a better understanding of how exactly magic responded to one's mindset.

While for the most part, one would think someone would be unable to use a magic their mindset wasn't suited for, that was untrue. Symbols could mean different things to different people. Where one person saw a shield another might see a weapon. So all Kurama had to do to use Naruto's magic was do what the boy had done earlier with his Rasengan and figure out what leaves symbolized to him. And if what they symbolized resonated strongly enough with him, he'd be able to use it.

Because that was the key. Not only did the magic have to mesh, whether naturally or if you made them fit into your worldview, your belief in their meaning had to be a strong one. You couldn't just look at a magic and say 'This symbolizes my love for noodles,' and be able to use it, because that kind of reasoning wasn't strong enough.

For Naruto, leaves symbolized his home and his current status as an unwilling traveller. For Kurama, the leaves symbolized several things. His original entrapment into Mito. Long years spent full of nothing but malice and spite. Rage and bloodlust at his imprisonment.

The leaves were a symbol of Naruto's will to protect, but for him, they were a symbol of his _Hate._

So even as the Blizzardvern screeched in pain and fury and flapped it's wings, blowing away the leaves from its bloody, torn and shredded body, he grinned. Because it proved that he at least gained _something_ out of all those years of confinement.

But there was something else he had gained from them. And as he used magic to augment a jump, flipping in the air towards the Wyvern, he used the magic that symbolized it. Descending from his leap, he thrust out his arm, gathering magic into the palm and an Oodama Rasengan sprang to life. Reaching Blizzardvern, he smashed the spell into the top of the thing's head from above, sending it flying down to the ground.

Yes, despite all those years of darkness, hate and rage and confinement, they were worth it. Because he had finally gained a friend, even if he _was_ a loud mouthed, gambling addicted, knuckleheaded brat.

Turning red eyes on the second Wyvern, he chuckled. Popping a few joints, he got ready for more of a fight.

It had been awhile, after all.

* * *

_2 Days Later, Random Mountain in the East._

He could sense something foul, in the area. It was a familiar sensation, one he had become used to over the millennia of his existence. The sensation of negative emotions.

Kurama had found that magic carried and responded to things like emotions much easier than chakra. As such, even from within Naruto, his sense of the world had grown larger, at least in regards to his ability to sense the negative feelings of others. And there was a large mass of such feelings close by, as far as he could tell. If his ability to sense such things had not decreased -and they hadn't- then they should be just a bit further up this mountain.

He would admit to being a tad curious as to what was causing it.

The temptation to check it out was a strong one, as it always was. That was simply a part of his nature. But this wasn't just his body and though he was sure he could deal with whatever he found, his body was already weary.

As he had suspected, Naruto's consciousness had not yet awakened. So for the past two days, Kurama had walked through a snowstorm, fought various creatures and managed to turn himself around in circles, twice. His body needed rest and nice nap would not go amiss either. While Kurama's mind could keep going for a long while without sleep, it was still a nice comfort and one he greatly appreciated.

But he was not an expert at taking care of a human body, like a normal person, and it was all he could do to simply keep himself warm. Finding food had been easy enough and snow was easily boiled, he had paid that much attention to Naruto through the years to learn that much. However, if he slept, there would be no way to make sure the body stayed warm.

Usually, in situations like his, he would stay awake in the seal while Naruto slept, still connected to the body's senses even as it slept. That way, if something went wrong, he could take over, or wake Naruto, or simply use his chakra or magic to fix whatever the problem was. With Naruto knocked out like he was, that was not an option.

Then again, it wasn't as if Naruto was ever all that careful with their body. The amount of times he got banged up was uncountable, at this point. So there wasn't really a reason that he _couldn't _be a little rough with their body, when thinking like that.

Coming to a decision, he cursed as he realized he'd gotten turned around again. Grumbling, he turned in the direction the feeling was coming from and headed off.

This mountain wasn't really all that different from any of the others and he was currently high up enough that the ground was covered in snow. Still, this mountain was rockier than the other and had more cliff faces and ledges than the first one had. At least the sky was clear today, no cloud in sight, letting the morning sun shine down onto the snow

As he walked closer and closer to the sensation, he came upon one of the many cliff faces of the mountain. Grunting, he simply started jumping from foothold to foothold, sometimes using a jutting rock to swing himself further up with his hands. Soon enough, he reached the top and pulled himself over the edge.

What met him was the sight of a building, set at the base of another cliff. It was downhill from the one he had just climbed, but still on the same level of the mountain. From what he could tell, it was made from a material that he recognized as concrete and was quite large. The color scheme was white and black and blended in well with all of the snow and rock. There was a large sign on the roof, that said "Ghoul Spirit," in large, painted purple letters.

Most likely, it was the building for some kind of guild. And a Dark one at that, from the feeling it gave off.

In this human body, the only one of the regular five senses Kurama could ascribe it to, was smell. From here, the place positively reeked. He could pick out the various different 'scents' of negative emotions. Pain. Fear. Greed. Jealousy. Lust. Hate. Rage. Malice. So many different smells, all blending together for something truly disgusting and nausea inducing.

As all of those emotions washed over him, he could feel his own rage rising. The fox knew instinctively that if he tried, he could concentrate on specific individuals and see flashes of why they felt this way. Something similar to mind reading, but not. It was not something he had ever been able to do before and Kurama wondered if it had something to do with how magic carried emotions better.

Back in the Elemental Nations, Kurama had long since been known as a demon. There were legends of him that said that he appeared in places of great evil and left only destruction in his wake. Those legends were true to an extent. It was simply in his nature, to seek out negative things. At the same time, constantly being surrounded by them had driven him into a rage at how ugly the true nature of humans were.

He had been disgusted by such things then and the same held true now. Though he now knew that not all humans were so evil, that they had a chance to be better than they were, his first instinct was to destroy what was in front of him.

Concentrating, he let the feelings wash over him, as he sifted through all of the metaphorical muck, looking, _hoping,_ for a shred of decency in any of it.

_Aaaauuuggghhh! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! That bitch really cut it off!_

_Damn, I can't believe she actually cut off his hand! Celena really is scary, I hope I never piss her off…_

_Heh, nice, John had a gold ring on that hand. He probably won't miss it once Celena is done with him, though._

_Hehe, I hope there's another request for kidnapping someone. They always pay well and sometimes you get to play with the merchandise._

_Serves the bastard right, for groping me! If he wanted to touch, he should've paid like everybody else._

More and more thoughts washed over him, as well as flashes of memory. People getting tortured. Families killed in their sleep. Children kidnapped and women raped. Any and every despicable act was shown to hm, and he knew they were all done by these people.

His rage was starting to tint his vision red. It was like he was thinking in a haze. Before he knew it, he had kicked open the door to the building.

As a surprised patron rose from one of the tables inside, a clawed hand reached out in a blur and before anyone could react, the man was missing his throat. Kurama watched with the others in the building as the man grabbed at his bloody neck, gurgling as he choked on his own blood. When the man finally fell to the ground, dead, he turned his gaze to the rest of the frozen room. Even the bald man holding a newly given stump where one of his hands used to be with his other one was standing still.

Then, people started to react.

Several people pulled out weapons, swords, knives and maces, while others went to the back of the room and started casting magic. Kurama simply stood there, his hand covered in blood and leaves appearing around him without a word.

Naruto would have given these people a chance. The brat would have tried to talk them into seeing the error of their ways, to make them regret their actions. But he wasn't Naruto. He was already sure these people were beyond redemption. Even if such a thought was hypocritical of him, he simply ignored it in his rage-induced haze.

As the people in the front closed in and the ones in the back finished casting their spells, he contemplated. The fox wasn't sure what, exactly, he was contemplating, but he could feel the gears turning in his head. When the first person reached him, one holding a sword, Kurama simply grabbed the sword as it was swung at him with his hand.

With the person held in place, he was unable to dodge as the leaves that appeared swarmed him, cutting into his flesh. The man screamed and let got of his blade, but it was too late as the cloud of leaves followed him. Within moments, he was laying on the ground, flesh torn and mangled, as if he had been thrown in a shredder. With a few last whimpers, the man turned into a lifeless corpse.

When the man died, Kurama could feel the tiniest bit of his haze slipping away. In its place was a small sense of satisfaction. And he came to understand something.

Throwing the blade that had been left in his hand to the ground, he turned to the the rest of room, who had paused once more. Even as his leaves intercepted several magical attacks, the leaves turning from razor-sharp paper, to rock hard shields, his eyes traveled along the people in the room. There were several blasts of fire, ice and lightning as they struck small walls of overlayed leaves. When they ended, he spoke four simple words, in a deep growling voice that didn't seem human. Just four words.

"**You have been Judged.**"

And then he was in the middle of their ranks, using his claws to slash through the spines of two of their number. As the battle resumed, he caught the arm of someone who had tried to attack him with a sword. They had been slow and the attempt had been weak. Pitiful. In retaliation, he wrenched the arm from its socket, but didn't stop there. He used a foot augmented with magic to kick the guy in the ribs with enough force that his arm was ripped from his shoulder with a sickening 'squelch,' and the man was sent flying into several of his guildmates, knocking them down.

Yes, he had come to a realization. Or more like, he had finally remembered something he had long since forgotten.

Though he and his fellow Bijuu had been labelled 'Demons' in the last millennia, people forgot a simple fact. One that he himself had forgotten. The Bijuu had all once been part of a greater whole, the Juubi. The God-Tree. And that was what it had been, a God, though it had turned into a monster. Even as it had been sealed by the Sage, it hadn't lost its Divinity.

Kurama was created from that same God's power. Within himself, he carried part of its Divinity and was in his own right, a God himself. Hagaromo had tried to instill in him and his siblings how they should act, but they had started to forget those lessons it seemed, as the years went by. But he had remembered now, remembered his purpose.

Each of the Bijuu had been given a specific purpose by their creator, a way of spreading his teachings. It had worked for a while, but eventually, his brethren started to lose hope that humans would ever learn the lessons the Sage had tried to impart. They had retreated into isolation for awhile, before slowly going mad from the loneliness or in frustration at the futility of their goal.

Only Kurama had continued on. But even he had eventually become jaded. Still, long before he had ever been called a Demon, he had been something else.

He had been a God of Judgement.

It had been his job to punish those whose sins were too great. To weigh the scales, between Sin and Virtue. He was the ultimate Judge, Jury and Executioner.

That knowledge gave him something now. A kind of...assurance, of his win. Like there was absolutely no way any of these people could actually escape him, now that they had been Judged and their Sins found too great. He found himself to be faster and stronger and the more he killed, the more the fog in his mind lifted.

As Kurama's clawed hands skewered another two Dark Mages through their chest, the leaves that had been lazily swirling around him and intercepting magical attacks suddenly stopped. There was a beat and then all of them shot away from him, cutting into the large mob of people who had surrounded him. He'd never bothered to count how many were here, but it looked liked there was about two thirds left.

However, as the enemies surrounding him, all with various weapons, fell to the onslaught of blade-like leaves, one of the smarter mages in the back saw an opportunity. One moment, he was simply just standing there and the next all he could see was flames. As the flames licked at him and his clothing, in his partially lucid mind, he noticed that while it was hot, he was not burning. The part of him that was not currently filled with an unearthly battlelust realized that apparently, not only had he been strengthening his muscles to an absurd degree, but also his clothes.

It was curious, that part of him decided. He had not done it consciously and as far as he knew, he wasn't even able to use magic to do such as thing as well as he had, even if he _tried. _Still, there were more important matters, the foggy part of his mind told him as the flames that surrounded his being slowly started to dissipate. When his form was revealed, he turned his cruel red eyes to the now terrified Dark Guild members.

One of the mages towards the front, with hands shaking, stuttered out in fear, "W-what in the hell is he?!"

Focusing on the one who just spoke, his mouth formed a twisted smirk, and he chuckled, before answering him.

"Your **Executioner.**"

Disappearing an explosion of leaves, he reappeared in another flurry of them, the leaves scattering outwards, tearing down those around him. The one he had appeared in front of, a simple looking man, with short brown hair and dark, frightened eyes didn't even have a chance to blink as his hand shot out and grabbed the man by his head. Squeezing, the man screamed, dropping his weapon -a mace- to claw at Kurama's hand. It was fruitless, however, as he just kept applying pressure, until finally the man had stopped struggling and his body went slack.

Picking the now corpse up into the air, he launched it like a missile at one of the mages in the back. The body slammed into the mage and threw him into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Things continued like that, Kurama dodging or simply not noticing any of the attacks thrown at him while he laid into their ranks. They fought for their lives, but ultimately they all met a messy end. As the fight continued, their numbers slowly dwindled, more and more just becoming morbid, lifeless scenery to the carnage.

When there was but a small handful left, he prepared to use the same spell he had used on that White Wyvern two days ago. However, a voice stopped him.

_Kurama. Stop._

And he did. Naruto's voice was a surprise, but not unexpected. He was sure the brat's consciousness would finally wake up today. His voice pierced through the small amount of haze that was still left in Kurama's mind and it made him pause. This was not Naruto's usual voice, but the one he used when he was serious. There was none of his usual joviality to it.

Most of the mages who were left took the opportunity to flee. They simply saw him pause and stop, as if focusing on something, but they did not hesitate. Nothing they did seemed to faze him. The most damage they done to him was when someone had gotten a lucky shot and scratched his face. As they fled out the door, one stayed where she was, obviously paralyzed in fear, her hands trembling and sweat marring her forehead.

She had no weapons and he idly noticed that she was the one who had hit him with the fire earlier.

Naruto asked him something and he cocked his head, listening. The fog that had engulfed his mind was completely gone, now, with Naruto's awakening. Once he had finally understood what he wanted, Kurama snorted.

Turning his attention to his lone remaining foe, he crossed his arms, now veritably covered in blood, and said, "You, Girl. What do you know of the Dark Guild known as Grimoire Heart?" His deep, growling voice, toned down only due to the frailty of human vocal cords washed over the woman.

He could see she was shaking worse now, the fact that someone she probably considered a monster at this point was now talking to her not fitting into her world view. Maybe she needed some encouragement? Growling in annoyance, he spoke once more, "Well, girl? Do you know anything or not?!"

The woman squeaked, and she jumped a bit, like a startled mouse. Her blonde hair was in disarray and shaking fingers went to smooth it out as she nervously answered.

"Uh-umm, N-not much really. Our guild mostly interacted with Oracion Seis, not Grimoire Heart...all I know is that they're one of the guilds at the top of Balam Alliance. N-not that it's really an alliance, more l-like an non-aggression pact."

Kurama watched as she stroked her hair more, obviously nervous as she looked for more she could tell him.

"O-oh! I also heard from a friend of mine in Zaxsa that they have some kind of airship and an interest in The Black Wizard, Zeref! Uh-umm, t-that's all I know, really..."

Turning his head, he snorted once more, That wasn't much at all. A part of him still told him to kill her, but he had promised Naruto he wouldn't. At least he'd get something in return.

Locking his eyes back on the woman, who was still fiddling with her hair, he said, "Simply go, Girl. Leave and do not come back. But remember, your Sins have been weighed and you have been found lacking. Death would have been a mercy."

As soon as he finished, she shot off towards the door. Naruto believed she deserved a chance, but he was not his friend. Whatever it was he'd done, he had looked into her soul and had found darkness. He did not believe she was strong enough to overcome it.

Looking around the building, he sighed at the mess. There was no way he was picking this up.

* * *

_3 Weeks Later...still in the Giardino Mountains._

_Damnit Kurama! You went in the wrong direction again!_

**...There was a snowstorm.**

_That only lasted an hour! How hard is it to simply find West?!_

Sighing, I gave up. Ever since that incident a few weeks ago, I'd bargained with an out-of-his-mind Kurama to spare that girl's life. He'd spared her, so I'd had to promise to let him take control more. There had been some more bargaining, in which conditions were added, such as like how Kurama was not allowed to go on such a rampage again.

I'd been a bit horrified, when I'd come to in the back of my mind, to see the state of mind my friend was in. It wasn't quite the carnage and bloodshed that I minded, because honestly, I'd done worse myself, no matter how much I hated that fact. No, what had bothered me was how Kurama had been acting during that little event.

His thoughts had been fogged over, driven by some insane rage. It reminded of the feeling I would get, when first using his chakra all those years ago. Nothing but an urge to kill and nothing but hatred for everything around me. What had worried me even more, was the fact that I had been able to sense some kind of magic influencing his thoughts. And it hadn't been some kind of spell someone had put on him, but more like something he had done to _himself._

Kurama had been halfway done with those Dark Guild members when I came to. Whatever magic had influenced him, that unforgiving rage wasn't its only effect. My body had been moving like it was hopped up on an imperfect, first stage Bijuu Shroud, without all the glowing. When I had asked Kurama what exactly had happened to cause all of that, he had only been able to shrug. I could tell there was something else, though, that he wasn't willing to say.

At the very least, we had gotten some information out of it. I'd already known Grimoire Heart was part of the Balam Alliance, that information was easy enough to come by. All I'd had to do was ask a Rune Knight, who had been out for a drink at the bar. The fact that they had an Airship was vaguely familiar, but I didn't know if that was from the memories that had long eroded, or if I had simply heard it somewhere.

But the information about Zeref was new. I didn't know much about the guy, having not bothered too much, besides the fact that he wrote some kind of badass book that every Dark Mage and their mother wanted and that he was some kind of big hitter back in the day. Once I got to another town, I'd have to read up on him some more.

If I ever got to a town.

A consequence of Kurama being in control, was that he constantly got lost. I'd forgotten that the fox had absolutely no directional sense, whatsoever, as it hadn't come up much back home. Either we were in a fight, or we were in Konoha when he took control, or he was simply in a clone and could dispel himself when he felt like it. In Konoha, when he was tired of being in charge of the body, I could simply come to and navigate my way through wherever he ended up.

Out here in the mountains, I couldn't do that. if I thought giving him directions would help, I'd do that, but instead that simply made it _worse. _I wasn't sure how that was possible, but apparently it was.

So, here we were, out on some random mountain once more. My cloak was ripped, from fighting off various Vulcans and Blizzardvern, as well as the occasional Dire Wolf. Oh, and not to mention that these mountains were apparently an attractive place for Dark Guilds to put their bases. After all, who'd ever be crazy enough to brave these cold, inhospitable mountains and come across them?

Me, apparently.

At this point, I was simply cold, tired and hungry. I didn't want to pull out another of my cloaks, because I knew that it would eventually get ripped and torn, just like this one. There was no telling exactly where I was on the map, so the only thing for it was to head West.

Hearing a snarling sound, and a low growl, I turned around. What I saw were three humanoid, white and black furred creatures. They had feline features and their fur was spotted, like a leopard's. Sharp black claws were on the end of each paw-like hand. Two of them were male and the last was was female.

And all three of them had their claws out and were snarling, their teeth bared in hungry grins.

I cursed Kurama again.

Now I had to deal with the damn Weretigers.

* * *

_World Notes:_

_Gods: In Earthland Gods are typically physical manifestations of sentient pieces land or terrain. They're spirits of the very land itself and tend to have unparalleled control of the element their bodies tend to reflect. In this way, they're a lot like Elementals. What differentiate them, is also what lets Gods of more abstract things, such as Death or Luck to come into existence. This 'thing' has been labelled as Divinity. It's a subtle thing, not always immediately recognizable, but it affects the power and might of various Gods and separates them from 'lesser being.'_

_Generally speaking, the only beings to ever really come close to, and sometimes even match, a God are Dragons. Why this is, no one is entirely sure, but many scholars in Earth Land yearn to someday answer the question._

* * *

_A/N: No, Naruto will not become a God Slayer anytime soon. Leaf Magic will have a lot more potential then what you see here. Nor will it be his only type of magic..._


End file.
